Last January Washington, D.C. began implementing a tax on disposable paper and plastic carryout bags. The 5-cent fee on bags produced an almost immediate reduction in the usage of single-use bags and their subsequent appearance in area waterways. The bag tax is great and all, but it makes me wonder: Why doesn’t DC have a [...]

We are getting fatter. And by we I mean Americans–some 26.7 percent of adults in the United States were obese in 2009. So, not only are our New Year’s resolutions to lose weight not working, but we’re actually gaining. According to a report issued yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009 [...]

I am perhaps the only tourist who intentionally seeks out the “bad” neighborhoods in each place I visit. I’ve been through the worst parts of Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Gary and Detroit. I’ve walked through all the wrong parts of Chicago, Springfield, East St. Louis, St. Louis and Kansas City. And, as I walked through what [...]

rest in St Louis, MO   0.0 miles When it comes to breaking out of the cycle of poverty, so many times it is suggested that education is the key. But teachers can only do so much. As one middle school teacher I had the privilege to meet today described it, they are just scratching [...]

Chicago – Alsip 19.8 miles It is perhaps no surprise, but living in poverty means a life without flowers. As I walked the old Route 66 out of Chicago today I passed pockets of gentrification. And I was bothered by the fact that the ramshackle, run-down buildings were surrounded by garbage and rot, while the [...]

I admit it, I don’t know what it’s like to live in poverty. I don’t know what it’s like to be in a situation where I have no money and no real options. But I thought I had come to understand the stress and desperation of living without. I was wrong. Poverty also means seeing [...]

It appears Wal-Mart does have a heart, of sorts. Today the world’s third largest corporation announced it would contribute more than $2 billion towards the fight against hunger in America. The donation will come in the form of 1.1 billion pounds of food from Wal-Mart stores, distribution centers and Sam’s Club locations (valued at $1.75 [...]

Sooner or later, most people will encounter a panhandler. It is an unjust fact of life. Though on most days my path crosses someone or another begging for some change, typically I don’t give money to panhandlers. It is not that I don’t empathize with their suffering, or that I doubt their need, but I [...]

Sometimes it takes being smacked in the face with the cold, hard truth to realize what has been slowly happening all around you. For me, the truth about just how much affordable housing has been lost in Alexandria, Va., the place I’ve come to call home, happened today as I was walking to the Braddock [...]

March 16, 2010 Today, as I watched a screening of Josh Fox’s documentary GasLand, about natural gas extraction by means of a hydraulic drilling process called “fracking,” it struck me just how often we allow short-term greed to stand in the way of what is best for everyone over the long term. Natural gas has [...]