Water Security. Watch "How to Fix Chennai's Water Crisis"

 

https://youtu.be/SqwPupYwb_w 

Food Insecurity. Nationwide Drive Launched to Get 200 Congressional Signers in 10 Days on Bipartisan Senate Letter About Food Crisis

Opportunities arise before the crisis of no return strikes

BEMA International

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America "Fighting for the Independent U.S. Cattle Producer"

 

For Immediate Release May 20, 2021

 

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com   View and share this news release on Facebook here or view the web version here.

 

Nationwide Drive Launched to Get 200 Congressional Signers in 10 Days on Bipartisan Senate Letter About Food Crisis

 

 

Billings, Mont. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) and U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called attention to a food crisis in America. In a comprehensive bipartisan letter, the senators succinctly described the anatomy of the nation’s food crisis marked by consumers paying an unnecessary, over-inflated price for beef in the store while the nation’s cattle ranchers and farmers are on the verge of going broke. The letter explains that if Congress does not take immediate action, current policies will “cause the demise of the American rancher and American consumers will be forced to pay a higher price for a much lower quality product.” The letter attributes the crisis to a failed marketing structure in which the middlemen have a stranglehold over both consumers and ranchers. Following a Facebook Live event held yesterday, the ranch group R-CALF USA launched an urgent, nationwide drive to get 200 members of Congress, from both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, to join with Senators Rounds and Smith by adding their name to the bipartisan letter within the next 10 days. “The most important step consumers and cattle producers can do today is to share this senate letter with their own senators and representative and get them to sign on,” said Brett Kenzy, a rancher and director of R-CALF USA. Kenzy said there have been many joint letters circulated by Congress, but not since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 – exactly 100 years ago – has there been a more important letter than this one. “This letter describes the crisis so clearly that representatives of both consumers and ranchers will immediately understand that they must join the bipartisan letter to reverse the crisis before it gets any worse.” Kenzy said he encourages every consumer and every cattle producer to put this bipartisan letter into the hands of each of their congressional members and to get their commitment to put an end to this serious crisis that affects everyone. Congressional members can join the letter by contacting the office of either Rounds or Smith. The public can check to see if their members of Congress have joined the bipartisan letter by going to the R-CALF USA Website at www.r-calfusa.com, which will be updated daily.

 

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516 for more information.

 

Woody Strode. Black Actor should be recognized for his achievements. May 2021

 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Woody-Strode

Woody Strode, byname of Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode, (born July 28, 1914, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died December 31, 1994, Glendora, California), American character actor who was part of director John Ford’s "family" of actors, appearing in nearly a dozen of Ford’s films. Strode also had a brief career as a professional gridiron football player and was among the first African Americans to play in the National Football League.

While a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Strode starred on the football team along with two other African American players, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington. In 1946 Strode and Washington signed with the Los Angeles Rams, thus (along with two others) integrating professional football in the United States. After a single season with the Rams, Strode played football in Canada and also did a stint as a professional wrestler. He made his film debut in Sundown in 1941, but it was not until the 1950s that he worked regularly in the movie industry. He appeared as the king of Ethiopia in The Ten Commandments (1956). He also gave memorable performances in Spartacus (1960) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as the Ford-directed films Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Two Rode Together (1961), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In Sergeant Rutledge Strode played the lead role of a cavalry officer wrongly accused of rape and murder. In 1968 he starred in Black Jesus, an Italian production of a story based on the life of African nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba.

Put simply: The cure for homelessness is a home. Opinion: D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure nobody else lives (or dies) without housing

 Homelessness can end in all major cities with a systematic approach.  One of the key features when disasters strike, and homeless can be considered a national\global disaster is to provide shelter, water, and food during recovery. 

Homelessness is an end result of individuals and families in a phase of recovery.  From domestic violence, financial recovery, mental & physical health recovery, drug recovery, loss of family member, a disability or functional need, retirement, and aging.

 Displacement of the most vulnerable.  Women and girls.

BEMA International

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/14/dc-chronic-homelessness-bowser-housing/ Opinion: D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure nobody else lives (or dies) without housing Homeless people living in tents in the L Street NE tunnel in January 2020. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Opinion by Christy Respress Christy Respress is executive director of Pathways to Housing DC. May 14, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. EDT   Though D.C. continues to make progress toward ending both family and veteran    homelessness, which have decreased significantly from prior years, the number of single adults experiencing chronic homelessness increased by an alarming 21 percent in the past year, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’s annual report of homelessness in our region, which was released Wednesday. D.C. is to be applauded for having made significant investments over the years to end homelessness for families and veterans. Now we need to bring even greater focus, energy and financial resources toward ending chronic homelessness. The spike in chronic homelessness is distressing. Ending chronic homelessness is not only possible and cost-effective but also urgent. At least 180 people experiencing homelessness died in 2020. We can and must do better as a community and as a region. It’s time the city made big, bold investments to end homelessness for all residents. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has a crucial choice to make: Save lives by investing in housing or underinvest in the urgent housing needs of our unsheltered neighbors. D.C. has the resources and the know-how to ensure that nobody else lives (or dies) without housing. I’m thinking of Clemit Jones, one of 5,111 neighbors sleeping in shelters and designated pandemic sites, in parks, under bridges and in doorways the night of Jan. 27, when surveyors fanned out across D.C. to conduct the annual census, known as the Point-in-Time Count. (Though not perfect, the annual snapshot captures valuable data used to allocate funding and track progress). Jones’s life began to unravel in 2008 when he lost his job. For 13 years, he has bounced from place to place — couch surfing or sleeping outside the library, in parks, in a shelter or in his car. In December, he landed in the hospital with a blood clot, the result of sleeping for so many years in his car, doctors told him. Tests also revealed a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Back on the streets, he found life even more challenging during the pandemic. “There are so many things you take for granted when you have a home,” he says. Like sleeping in a bed. Or having access to a bathroom — something that has been much harder during the coronavirus pandemic. He is grateful for store owners who helped him when he hadn’t eaten for four or five days. Since introducing the Housing First approach to this region 17 years ago, Pathways to Housing DC has met thousands of people like Jones, men and women who have been homeless for a year or more (sometimes decades) who are living with challenging health conditions. Their lives might be complicated, but the solution is not: Provide them with housing first, then combine that permanent housing with supportive services in the areas of mental and physical health, substance use, education and employment. Put simply: The cure for homelessness is a home. The past year has reminded us not only how integral housing is to health but also that homelessness is caused by a persistent legacy of systemic racism, not personal failings. The annual Point-in-Time Count confirms what we know: People of color are disproportionally impacted. A staggering 86.5 percent of individuals experiencing homelessness in D.C. are Black. Centuries of racist policies have denied entire communities the ability to thrive. Against an ongoing backdrop of racial inequities and a looming eviction tsunami, and as a member of the Way Home Campaign, I call upon Bowser and the D.C. Council to follow through on the goal of making homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring” by ending chronic homelessness for 2,761 individuals and 432 families with an investment of $100 million. This figure is based on government and nonprofit projections of what it costs to house an individual in a given year. In addition, let’s invest in prevention and street outreach, in wide-scale rent and utility relief, the Local Rent Supplement Program and the Housing Production Trust Fund. Similar investments must be made by leaders across the region to ensure a more aggressive plan to end homelessness, address issues of racism and housing affordability, and ensure that no person experiences homelessness again. Let’s also use lessons of the past year to continue to find innovative solutions going forward. I’m thinking of virtual housing inspections and converting office space and hotels for housing, among other new approaches that eliminate barriers and add more housing options. In January, when Jones was released from the hospital, he was beginning to wonder whether he’d ever move off the streets. Yet, with the help of his Pathways housing navigator, he was recently approved for an apartment and expects to move into his own place by summer. I asked him what he is most looking forward to. “Stability. Solitude. A shower.” Not that long ago, individuals who had lived on the streets for years had little hope of living independently. Today, with targeted funding, ending homelessness is within our grasp.