A Fundamental Barrier

Rich Kids Stay Rich, Poor Kids Stay Poor

By Ben Casselman and Andrew Flowers

 

On Friday, a team of researchers led by Stanford economist Raj Chetty released a paper on how growing up in poverty affects boys and girls differently. Their core finding: Boys who grow up in poor families fare substantially worse in adulthood, in terms of employment and earnings, than girls who grow up in the same circumstances. (The Washington Post has a good write-up of the paper and its implications.)

But beyond its immediate conclusions, the paper, like much of Chetty’s recent work as part of his Equality of Opportunity Project, points to a deeper truth: In the U.S., where you come from — where you grow up, how much your parents earn, whether your parents were married — plays a major role in determining where you will end up later in life.

 

Take, for example, the chart below. . .read more here.

Join the fight!

As many of you know, CitySquare, along the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Jewish Community Relations Council and Catholic Charities, has played a major role in curbing the abuses of payday and auto title lenders. Because of our efforts, the Dallas City Council unanimously adopted the most stringent ordinances in the country to regulate this industry. That ordinance has now been adopted by more than 33 different cities throughout Texas, including El Paso, Austin, Garland, Houston, San Antonio and Grand Prairie and there are other municipalities considering the Dallas ordinance. While we and our allies have not been quite as successful at the state level, we did get legislation requiring disclosure and reporting of these businesses which allows more opportunity to tell of the impact they are having on Texas families.
 
Now we have the opportunity to substantially impact the small dollar loan industry on a national level…
 
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency which provides oversight over abuses in the financial industry, is taking comments from citizens throughout the country regarding their dealings with payday and auto title loans. These comments will be considered as the CFPB recommends to Congress federal legislation that will save the people we care about across the nation, from the debt trap caused by this type of predatory lending.  

What can you do?
If you, or anyone you know, have been victimized by payday or auto title lenders, tell your story! Write it down on this form and send it to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Attn: Stephanie Mace 1800 N. Lamar St Dallas, TX 75202, or attach as PDF document and send it to DallasStopTheDebtTrap@gmail.com.
 
Check out this Payday Lending Alternative sheet, which is a resource provided by the Anti-Poverty Coalition with counsel for those may be going through hard financial times, along with a list of legitimate lenders who may be able to help.
 
Also, ask your neighbors, co-workers, or fellow community members if they have ever been ensnared in debt because of taking out a payday or auto title loan. If they haven’t, do they have a close relative or friend who may be in debt because of one of these loans.
 
Payday lenders are one of those businesses that help keep poor neighborhoods poor. People who take out these loans are not stupid, they aren’t lazy, they aren’t trying to get something for nothing. People who take out these loans are in desperate situations and get in trouble attempting to pay them back.  For so long, we were told that there was nothing that could be done. Now we have a chance to fight for those in poverty, our friends, and our families!
 
In this fight together!
 
Rev. Gerald Britt Jr.
Vice-President of External Affairs
CitySquare

Those without love

Getting What We Deserve

It is always a terrible thing to come back to Mott Street [where she lived]. To come back in a driving rain to men crouched on the stairs, huddled in doorways, without overcoats because they sold their overcoats—perhaps the week before when it was warm, to satisfy their hunger or thirst, who knows. Those without love would say, ‘It serves them right, drinking up their clothes, selling their clothes to buy booze, it serves them right.’ But God help us if we got what we deserve!

Dorothy Day
Source: The Catholic Worker (1985)

Couldn't resist. . .refreshment of the heart

Stranger?

Welcome Something New

To offer hospitality to a stranger is to welcome something new, unfamiliar and unknown into our life-world…. Strangers have stories to tell which we have never heard before, stories which can redirect our seeing and stimulate our imaginations. The stories invite us to view the world from a novel perspective.

Thomas Ogletree
Source: Hospitality to the Stranger

Listen to the "poor"!

May 02, 2016

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Fellow Billionaires: Let's Listen to the Poor

Pete Ryan, for The Chronicle

 

by Manoj Bhargava               

One of the biggest fallacies of philanthropy is the expectation that money will solve everything and that more money equals greater results. Trillions of dollars are spent globally on social and environmental issues, and very few problems have been solved. Why is that?

We’ve been focused on the wrong things. Our assumptions, traditions, and self-interest have made us lose sight of what it means to do philanthropy in the true sense of the word. Philanthropy should be about serving humanity and giving people what they need — not what we think they need or what feels good to give, like putting our names on buildings or giving to institutions that are already rich.

To truly change the world, we need to make significant adjustments — to our mind-sets, our motivations, our attitudes, our ways of thinking, and even our business models. Like several other billionaires, I have pledged to give most of my wealth away. As I do it, I am trying to follow these principles:

Value and success should be based on results, not dollars.
Philanthropy today is judged almost entirely. . .Read more here.

I Fight!

[Michael Guinn works at CitySquare as a life coach to youth who age out of the Texas foster care system.  He is extremely effective at what he does.  What follows reveals just what's behind his fierce dedication to his work and to the young people he touches.]


I Fight!
                                                                                                                                                   
Do you know what it’s like to want and can’t have? To be so hungry that you eat dirt so you don’t feel  so…empty!  Do you know what it’s like to not have running water, to do homework by candlelight. To steal and lie and hustle to help out your family?

I do.                                                                            

And some nights skinny then reminds bigger now of the times when he brought home food found at the landfill, fished for compliments and crawdads, sold squirrel and black birds to pay for school clothes.                                                  

And yesterday I wondered! What good is my master’s degree if I can’t even master me?

See I fight …for the father who desperately wants to provide. But in shame he cries in the shadows of his own pride.                                                                                                                   

I fight… for the mother who stands in welfare lines, wanting more, defined by less knowing that this is not her best.

I fight.. . for the son whose hunger pangs are so loud that he can’t focus on his lesson so he sits embarrassed by his stomach’s angry confession.

I fight…for the daughter wearing hand me down smiles and borrowed blues forced to wear too tight shoes.

I fight ...for grandparents on fixed incomes feeding mama’s children when baby’s daddy runs.

I fight, I live and I learn to shape dreams from the fist of poverty’s grip as I fuse the light in their eyes with mine and pray to God to help them find hope inside.                  

And this ain’t easy! It is hard to lift self-esteem when dreams have been assaulted  and peppered  with despair so much so that they’ve forgotten to breathe freedom’s air.

And it’s not their fault that they were born verbs in past tense, unwilling subjects in sentences that kept on running. Fractured by the manner in which the wind whistled and blew down their future, I fight because I don’t want their existence to be another statistic on the back page of history.  I don’t want their lives to end up camouflaged chalk lines, lost in the shaded silhouette of a lonely bulls-eye searching for another target!

I didn’t choose this fight, this fight chose me. And I want my example to foster a deep desire for survival no matter how loudly suicide speaks of rivers. Because I believe that if they see my love and feel my soul reaching out to them that this simple act of kindness will change their lives forever.

And now that I’ve made peace with this section 8 hate, now that I’ve overcome the demons of then... I know that every time I find a new resource, service, home I am reconnecting the dots of frowns and turning them into smiles. People ask why do I fight poverty with so much energy and passion? And I tell them it’s because I know that I am still fighting for that little boy inside of me!

Michael Guinn

TRAC PSH Coach at CitySquare

May 17^th 2016

My Own Bed: Like a good neighbor!

A HUGE thank you to our partners at My Own Bed!

When someone ages out of the foster care system, they often have very few things and have to start anew. My Own Bed helps by providing beds for our TRAC youth who have moved into their own apartments. Today, two of our TRAC youth received beds and bedding!

You can help provide beds too. Simply make a donation at CitySquare.org, select "other" and type in "My Own Bed"!

To understand, see the history. . .

Jerry's coming to the Square!

A Night to Remember 2016

Seinfeld for City Square in the Fight Against Poverty!

By Catie Walker and Lou Ann York

 

NBC 5 and CitySquare would like to invite you to get your tickets today to enjoy A Night to Remember featuring the legendary comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. Tickets are on sale now, and this Winspear Opera House performance will take place on Saturday evening, September 10.

 Help CitySquare celebrate over 25 years of fighting poverty by partnering with those in need. Since 2002, A Night to Remember, CitySquare’s annual fundraising event, has generated over $3 million to assist programs and services such as:

·         A Food Pantry that distributes nearly two million pounds of food to over 20,000 individuals each year.
·         A Health Clinic that provides primary, preventive and pediatric health care to the low-income and uninsured who would otherwise seek medical attention in emergency rooms or go without care.
·         The Permanent Supportive Housing that provides housing for over 250 formerly homeless and near-homeless neighbors.
·         Pre-Employment Training that equips the unemployed with “ready to work” skills.
·         Life Skills, Mentoring and Case Management that supports over 800 youth who grow out of the foster care system each year.
Support the mission and get your tickets today at www.Seinfeld4CitySquare.org!!!

A Night to Remember 2016
Featuring Jerry Seinfeld for CitySquare
Saturday evening, September 10
AT&T Performing Arts Center
Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
2403 Flora Street
Dallas, TX 75201
Tickets on Sale Now
www.seinfeld4citysquare.org
214-303-2138

Flowers for mom. . .

The "native Texas" plant (read here "weed") in full bloom appeared on our makeshift communion table/altar at Church at the Square last Sunday. It had been carefully prepared for the occasion of Mother's Day by one of the fairly regular members of the church. 

Planted in a disposable coffee cup, wrapped carefully in tin foil, with pieces of bark and black earth, the gentleman placed it carefully among the symbols of our faith arrayed on the table of the Lord.

"I brought this for Mother's Day," he declared with a smile on his face and a compelling twinkle in his eye.  "I wanted us to remember our moms on this special day." 

After the morning service concluded, the church enjoyed breakfast brunch prepared by culinary arts students from CitySquare. 

When the morning concluded, the man retrieved his plant and went on his way--back out on to the streets of Dallas, his only option.  No doubt, he intended to enjoy the beauty of his and God's creation for a while longer. 

A sweet gift offered in appreciation for mothers, including his and mine. A respect for what's good in life and the world. 

I'm thankful for my brother who brought new meaning to the day and to our communion together.

Prayer before Texas Medical Association 2016 General Meeting

God of many names and of all people,
We pause to reflect in gratitude for the gift of,
As our very poor neighbor have taught us,
"Another day we weren't promised."

We are grateful for this meeting,
For the anticipated experience of the event.

We give thanks for the fellowship of our tables and the goodness of friendship.

We give thanks for he gift, the science, the art of healing
And for those who have given themselves to the grand Mystery of it all.

As we express gratitude for the day and its wonder,
We remember those in our community who struggle this morning;
Those who call tents "home," and even now are on the move in our city.

May we be sensitive to the concerns and the harsh realities facing
The poor, the sick, the wounded, the addicted and the broken.

In a world of complexity, strife and fear on the one hand,
And a life of joy, discovery and promise on the other,
May we take the path between,
A path that lead to just solutions, resilient hope and new promise.

Amen.

Results and Accountability



The lasting alternative

Empire of Love

The empires of the world, as Napoleon said in a moment of candor, depend on force. They have come and gone; and the ones that now exist will follow in their turn. They make fear and death their weapons, and they themselves die when the fear they have generated turns into violent rebellion. Jesus, at his ascension, was given by the creator God an empire built on love. As we ourselves open our lives to the warmth of that love, we begin to lose our fear; and as we begin to lose our fear, we begin to become people through whom the power of that love can flow out into the world around that so badly needs it…. And as the power of that love replaces the love of power, so in a measure, anticipating the last great day, God’s kingdom comes, and God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.

N. T. Wright
Source: Following Jesus

Dear North Texas. . .

KRLD: Tent City Interview

Listen right here.

May 5!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

This is a special day across the United States and Mexico.

Numerous neighborhoods across Dallas are celebrating the famous Battle of Puebla, Mexico on May 5, 1862, the day on which Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, outnumbered 2 to 1, routed the French army.

So, why Cinco de Mayo?

Under Emperor Napoleon III, the French invaded Mexico with designs of staying in order to challenge the United States, at the time involved in its own Civil War.

Napoleon's Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City about 100 miles to the west. The French believed that if the Mexican Capitol fell, the nation would be theirs.

Under the innovative and daring leadership of Zaragoza, the Mexican army more than prevailed. The outcome of the battle on United States history is often overlooked. The victory prevented the French from supplying the Confederate rebels in the U. S. for another year.

As the American Civil War wound down, following the Union victory at Gettysburg, U. S. General Phillip Sheridan traveled to the Mexican border to bring materials needed to expel the French completely. At this time American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.

Almost 100 years later, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.

Cinco de Mayo is a community party! It is a day to celebrate liberty and freedom. It is a celebration bringing together the United States and Mexico. It is a day for remembering our common heritage and our connection as people. It is a day and an event that I remember almost every morning as I drive by Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School in my neighborhood!

It seems to me that it's a party we all need to join, now as never before.

What do you think?

.

All the same. . .

The Same As We Are

He whom we look down upon, whom we cannot bear to see, the very sight of whom causes us to vomit, is the same as we are, formed with us from the self-same clay, compacted of the same elements. Whatever he suffers, we also can suffer.

St. Jerome