"Home"Less Veterans

Political Cartoon about Homeless Veterans  

Studies from the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness show that more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year, and 23% of these people are military veterans. Phoenix, Arizona has reached an amazing achievement, becoming the first city to reduce the number of chronically homeless veterans living in the city to zero. A 56 year old veteran named Robert Stone fell into alcoholism and a failing heart after serving at California naval bases for 3 years. He said “I’m coming up on nine months sober, and a big part of it is because I have a roof over my head” (Santos). The government has made it a top priority to get U.S. veterans off the streets by 2015.  To read more about Phoenix’s plan click here, and to read more about the government’s opinion on homeless veterans click here.

You may ask why the government has made this a top priority. Why not focus on the national debt or crime rates in major cities? The simple answer is that the veterans deserve a better life than homelessness. They have spent many years serving in the military, protecting and supporting the nation from behind closed doors. People who have dedicated their lives to protect their "home" should not be "home"less.

After reading this article I thought about Jane Addams, the creator of the Hull House. The Hull House was the first homeless shelter built in Chicago, IL and considered one of the most influential settlement houses in the nation. The idea of homeless shelters have passed down from 1889 to 2013. I find it ironic that the Hull House was directed toward immigrants coming into the U.S., but now, it is the defenders of our country who need this basic assistance. 

How do you think Jane Addams would react to this turn of events? What does this issue of homelessness REALLY say about U.S.'s military spending and care for its citizens?

The Data Leak

Right after Christmas, 4.6 million people received a special gift from a group of hackers. 4.6 million people had their usernames, phone numbers, and their region area displayed on http://www.snapchatdb.info/. The last two digits of the phone numbers had an "x", but anyone can figure out the numbers with trials of combinations. To see if your information was leaked, click here. Unfortunately, even if you delete your snapchat, your phone number still remains on the list. Some people wonder why this leak hurts anyone at all, but by having the information of the snapchatter, hackers can use that information to get into other accounts connected to that phone number. For example, Google accounts, Facebook, and other sources of social media connected to that number can be accessed. Read this article for more information about this leak. To read more about the dangers of this leak, click here.

After hearing about the leak I checked to see if I was on the list: and I was. I took down my phone number from all my other social media accounts. This leak made me think about the security of my information on all my social media accounts. Chris Gayomali of "The Week" writes: 

     Snapchat is a messaging service that destroys pictures after they are sent. It is very popular. The company prides itself on security and privacy, and maintaining the trust of its users is paramount to its success.

Knowing that even Snapchat, a company that "prides itself on security and privacy" got hacked, worries me about the amount of security Americans have in all their accounts, from snapchat to the bank.

How much security do you think Americans really have? Do we have full control over our own accounts? If not, will we ever?

The Rest of the 7.0%

A couple of days ago, my mom and I went to our local Dominick’s to pick up some snacks for school. We were surprised with the number of people that were waiting in line. The usual number of people at Dominick’s was almost doubled that day. Customers filled baskets, and some even filled carts. Apparently, Dominick’s is closing and announced their store closure sale. With almost everything 50% off, many people in the community took the closing as an opportunity to spend less money on essentials we could stack up on. My instinct was the same. I am guilty of this as well, but a lot people used the closing as an excuse to buy items they didn’t even need. Many customers were happy an excited about the great sale, but when I thought about the situation more, I realized that this closure was actually very bad for some people. Dominick’s is being replaced with Mariano’s in late December, and I thought about all the people that are losing their jobs because of this closing.

The article from the link above says “Dominick’s employee Teresa Torres, who has landed a job at Jewel-Osco, was out taking advantage of the sale Friday. Her cart was filled to the brim.” So what about the employees that don’t have a set job after Dominick’s closes? Do you think they’re happy shopping in the sale? The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in the U.S., 2009 had the greatest unemployment rate, averaging at around 9.5-10.0%. Since then, the unemployment rate in the U.S. has steadily decreased, and the unemployment rate during November of this year was 7.0%. It’s great that the unemployment rate is decreasing, but what about the rest of the 7.0% that is unemployed? How low do you think the unemployment can ever drop? Does America need a specific percentage of people to be unemployed?

Digging Deeper into History

Figure 1: A photo of the 400,000-year-old thigh bone.

Taken by Javier Trueba, Madrid Scientific Films

Scientists recently discovered a 400,000-year-old thigh bone in Spain that has brought up new questions of the origin of humans. A cave that scientists have discovered multiple fossils from called “Sima de los Huesos”, was where the fossil was found. It was assumed the DNA found in the bone would be related to the Neanderthals, but the DNA turned out to be similar to that of the Denisovans. Read more about the discovery by clicking on this link.

After reading about this article, I started to think about the world's history. Every day, scientists are putting forth their best efforts to make history a bit clearer: specifically in this case, uncovering the origin of humans. There will always be missing pieces to history, and I believe that many of our findings will not be completely accurate. So, why do people try to find answers to history, and how do we know if our knowledge of history is correct? I also wonder if our version of history is affected by personal interpretations. 

Leave your thoughts and comments below!