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Photo by doug.siefkin
It's a chilly holiday for some but just another Monday for others. Either way, it's also Martin Luther King Day as well as the National Day of Service. If you'd like to get involved but aren't sure how, here's a list of events going on around the Chicago area today that you can get involved in. And what kind of weather will you have to volunteer in? It'll be cold with highs only creeping just past 20 degrees and a wind chill value very close to 0. There's also a chance of flurries this afternoon, but more snow will move in tonight. Lows will fall to the lower teens but new snow accumulations are expected to be less than half an inch. Unless you live in northwest Indiana where you're under a lake-effect snow advisory.
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I honestly just noticed that it was "Marcus Gilmer" not "Marcus Glimer" (in head pronounced "Glimmer'). I wish I could be out doing some sort of service today, but alas MLK is a PTO Holiday.
Hey the economy is in the toilet, lets go give away our time and labor!
No, We Can't.
Sure, your hurt and suffering. But others are worse off.
That is a beautiful picture. I hope that Obama's getting signed in Tuesday will serve as a catalyst to see King's dream become more and more of a reality in this city. That would truly be beautiful.
NOPE.
-African American men in prison is nearly three times that of Hispanic men and nearly seven times that of white men
-Nearly 4 out of 10 young African American men lack health insurance.
-Young African American men die at a rate that is at least 1.5 times the rate of young white and Hispanic men, and almost three times the rate of young Asian men
-The unemployment rate for young African American men is over twice the rate for young white, Hispanic and Asian men
-Fewer than 8% of young African American men have graduated from college compared to 17% of whites and 35% of Asians.
-The percentage of black children under 18 years old living with a single, never-married parent rose from 14.1 percent in 1970 to 28.7 percent in 1980, to 51.8 percent in 1990, to 63 percent in 2002.
-The unemployment rate for young African American men is over twice the rate for young white, Hispanic and Asian men
-Among women, about two out of three new HIV cases are African American.
-Life expectancy for African American Women is 4 years short than White Women (81 to 77), for African American Men it is 6 years shorter (76 to 70)
Albanyparkour, those stats are disheartening. I hope my family can play a small part to the solution of this problem. (By the way, where did you get this info from?)
So Albany leaves to take a hundred mile trip. After a minute, he notices he's driven a mile. He does the math, realizes he has 99 miles to go and exclaims, "We'll never get there."
The world is not perfect and never will be. But we have to acknowledge it's getting better. Otherwise, what would be the point of continuing to work.
Not at all. But if we stop every mile, get out, congratulate ourselves for a job well done, set up camp for the night and bask in our own munificence, then yes, we will never get there.
But what you describe is not what saradam or many other people celebrating this event are doing. We are noting that progress has been made, not saying we've come far enough. saradam said he/she hopes this will be a "catalyst" for continued change, and the instantaneous reaction is a harsh "no," followed by a description of all the many things still wrong with the world. And I have to ask anyone with that outlook, then, what hope there could possibly be?
To belabor the metaphor, if there's any milestone on the road to equality worth taking a moment for reflection and celebration, this is it. We can get back on the road tomorrow, but for now, why not savor this moment?
The Kaiser Foundation report (The second link) is quite a kick in the teeth. It's tough stuff, but with all the "hey look we elected a black guy!" back-patting, it's good to keep in mind just how many african-americans are hurting.
http://www.4woman.gov/minority/africanamerican/
http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/7541.pdf
http://www.webmd.com/news/20080611/life-expectancy-reaches-new-record