America’s war on compassion – and cellphone charging?

Street Roots Newspaper, PortlandAdd this story to the growing evidence that a war is being waged in America to make compassion a crime and to deny the most basic services to our #neighborswithnoaddress – the vast US homeless population of over half a million people. Which by the way ‘but for the Grace of God‘ could be you or me. Emily Green of Street Roots News reports on the plight of “Jackie”, whom police arrested for theft for charging her cellphone in an outside receptacle located in a planter box in Old Town, Portland. This story was reported by Street Roots, a Portland newspaper that serves the poor and homeless.

The net cost of Jackie’s alleged electricity theft was probably about 1/50th of a cent but this did not deter the justice system from requiring several court appearances, putting her in jail for a night and attempting to bully Jackie into pleading guilty, which would have annihilated the homeless woman’s chance at qualifying for a public housing subsidy. Jackie has MS and hopes to get housing now that she has begun receiving disability checks.

Gary L. Everest Tells about Street Roots newspaper:

“Street Roots” is a local newspaper with it’s home in Old Town. It’s dedicated to issues facing the homeless and sold on the streets around Portland by ambitious homeless men and women. It’s a great way for them to earn some money and I must say, the vendors are always respectful and never aggressive. At least one individual, who sold the paper outside of “Trader Joe’s” on NW Glisan was known for helping customers with grocery carts. When he passed away a year or two ago, there was quite an outpouring of feeling for this kind soul. read more

Why Middle East news is so anti Israel

In this well documented article, a former AP editor explains why all major media outlet’s Middle East reporting portrays little Israel as the big, bad oppressor of the long-suffering Palestinians – no matter what the truth is.

most important story on earth headline

For starters, the AP alone has over 40 staffers reporting on ME affairs. And, AP and all other major news outlets’ Middle East reporters are only allowed to write stories that reinforce the “Bad Israel – Oppressed Palestinians” legend. The editors of major media publications simply refuse to publish any other type of stories.

Furthermore, approximately zero major media reporters in the Middle East speak either Arabic or Hebrew, so the permanent ME press corps lacks the ability to gather the deep insider perspectives that would give them a truly informed, holistic view of what is actually going on … and maybe impassion some of them to reveal the truth even if doing so would blow up their careers.

This article is well written, informative and thought provoking. I hope you’ll read it.