Shantytowns--Is this our country?

While I have written about the impact of the economic crisis in several contexts, the situation in Fresno, CA, where 100 or so people have set up a tent city really is deplorable. I know times are hard but we can do better than this. What this crisis has done is created a laser focus on the problems that were there all along but better hidden. In my opinion, this is the situation in Fresno. While certainly some of these folks were working a year ago, you can surmise from the article the jobs were for minimum wage or less. The problem did not start when we thought it did. The increase in poverty, homelessness, and even some of the unemployment was there all along. The worse thing in the world that we could do now is just address the symptoms yet another time and let these problems worsen. No matter what you think about the President's budget or his priorities, he is dead-on right that we have to think long-term and fix our systemic problems. 

LeadershipPlenty Certified Train-the-Trainer--Virginia Tech, May 18-20. Register Now!