Some weeks ago, I stood in line awaiting check-in at the shelter. This place charges $3 a night. I was holding my money in my hand, and someone playfully tugged at it. I snapped. I said, “You don’t value your life much, do you?” Minutes later, I explained this to someone else. I said, “Don’t take a man’s last dollar.” “Why not?” he asked. I said, ” ‘Cause that’s the one he’ll die for. That’s the one he’ll kill for.” Don’t take my last dollar. That’s the one I’ll kill for. I’v

Stress in low-income families can affect children’s learning I am very excited about this. This is, as far as I know, the first study to attempt to measure the degree of chaos in the home. The researchers in an earlier-mentioned study (Related: Poor children have smaller brains) speculated that “poor families tend to live more chaotic lives, and that stress could inhibit healthy brain development.” The current study seems to indicate that it is directly so. As of this writi

I expect these reports to be vehemently condemned in the United States as racist, albeit the results are sure to be replicated in mono-ethnic nations such as Sweden.

Noise, in general, is chaotic or random sound. Danny personifies noise. He has a foul mouth, and talks constantly in a loud voice, usually about other people. His elbows are always sticking out, and he talks with these wild hand gestures like you see in a rap video. For some reason, he insists on sitting at my favorite table at meals. More than one of us are actually happy when he doesn’t come. In my years working at the dollar store, I found needless noise a great stresso

———— ♦ ———— Three thoughts on tohu (chaos) and tikkun (order) Wednesday 2014-10-15 Danny keeps breaking up his phones. Last night he had two of them. One of them, he’d bought just that morning. He said, “The guy at the store said, ‘This is the fifth one this month.'” Note: Thank God, these are not “Obamaphones.” He’s paying for them. Related: Easily breakable Next: This morbidly obese first-timer, last night, left garbage (sic) in the smoke pit, ignoring a trash can eight fee

This thinking goes back to 1973. I was a senior in high school, running an errand in the family car. I must have been listening to WKSU. This 5- or 15-minute segment came on. A female spokesperson for the ACLU said that, under the compulsory school attendance law, a minor can only be in one of two places: a school, or a penal facility. In her view there was no real difference. I was an honors student and deeply convicted that education is the answer to poverty. Thus her

This is the first of three posts about entitlement: Today – “Entitlement(s): Attitude and policy” 04/26 – “How I became homeless” 05/03 – “When needs are met” Let’s get rid of (the term) entitlements “In 2012, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone represented 44 percent of spending; all entitlement programs were 63 percent. But it’s hard to control entitlement programs because their constituencies are so large.” It makes sense to me that, as Samuelson proposes, we sho

The only hell of concern to me is the living hell, in this life, here and now, that people create for themselves and one another. Today, the Central African Republic is a prime example. There is a history to this conflict that goes back to 1960, but as far as I can tell this land has never known peace at any time.

In recent days, I’ve spent much time trying to sort out my understandings of Good and Evil, order and chaos, darkness and light. I read a lot about Zoroastrianism, wanting to be sure my thinking isn’t “dualist” like that religion.

Environmental factors impact a child's ability to control impulses; which fact has profound effects relative poverty and social injustice.