Helping Never Hurt

It's nice to see so many people throughout the world coming together to help the Japanese people whom were effected by the earthquake/typhoon. It is in times of trouble that mankind seems to be at it's best. We have seen an outpouring of support for Japan and Haiti as they struggle to come to grips with major catastrophes and loss of life. These people will never have the same life they had before the disasters. They have lost homes, security, and family members all in the blink of an eye. The Japanese and Haitians are going to need alot of help for many years just to get back to what most people take for granted, so we need to help anyway we can.

With that said I also believe we cannot forget that everyday many Americans go without shelter and food as well. I am not posting this as a political debate so leave your opinions of the homeless to yourself and hear me out. Homelessness in America mostly gets swept under the rug because some people don't want to believe that the most powerful country in the world can have that kind of problem. We do. The homeless population continues to climb as the economy continues to tank. Some of the homeless are even employed but don't make enough money to support themselves or their children properly. They occupy shelters, if they are lucky, or even live in their cars and frequent food banks as well as soup kitchens. We need to remember that people are struggling even in our neighborhoods, you may even know someone whom has lost everything or your kids go to school with a child that spends his/her nights in a shelter, car, or worse. So I say for every dollar sent to help foreign countries recover we should send the same amount to the local shelter, food bank, or soup kitchen. Many of these places are running low on funds to remain open or to accept new comers. In other words they need our help as well, so why not help locally as well as globally. Let us not forget that charity begins at home.