Feeling Human Again

I pulled an all-nighter last night and this post was going to be all about how great it is when you push hard and give something your all and it actually works out for you. I have a problem set due Thursday that I hadn't started as of 8:30 PM yesterday and now I have 2 questions left of 19. So there you have it, yay all-nighters.

When I have the chance, I like to read the NY Times front page. It's part of what I do while I slog through science papers and classes to remind me that I'm still human and that things are going on outside my little bubble. Up until last Tuesday, my news time was all about the elections. Now that it's all over and Bush is handling himself like a gentleman and Obama seems to have himself more or less in order, there's a lot less to read on that front. So I get to read about the real world instead. The real world isn't doing so hot.

Last April, in my first post on this blog, I wrote about how biofuels were inflating prices of basic cereal grains that people in Third World countries rely on to sustain themselves, so while there's plenty of grain to go around, it's too expensive for poor people to get enough of and it's too expensive for food organizations to purchase enough of for those people. So far as I know, that hasn't changed.

Imagine my heart-break today when the headline for the Times reads: When the Cupboard Is Bare. Apparently the economy has gotten so bad in parts of these United States that food pantries, food banks and soup kitchens are struggling to feed the people who come through their doors, if they're still open. People with jobs and kids can't afford to put food on the table and pay rent, even with food stamps, and have to figure out ways to scrape by. According to the figures quoted in the article, 35.5 million people don't always have enough to eat and 10.1 million people often go to bed hungry. One in three households will have someone go hungry sometime this year because there wasn't enough money for food. Many people who do contracted work such as plumbers or electricians haven't seen a decent paycheck in months and don't know when they'll see one again.

Personally, I've never gone to bed hungry if I wasn't too tired to eat. My family might have struggled in years past to pay the bills and balance the budget, but my parents always put food on the table. It's shocking that now, some people can't even have that.

It might seem quaint, but people do deserve the basics. That means food, warmth and shelter. When a society fails them in that most basic sense, something is wrong. Hopefully it's just the economy, but if it's not, I'm hoping the "Change that's coming to America" gives that back to these people.

When I wrote last April about the way biofuels were affecting world food prices, it was a step in a direction that I'm still exploring. Increasing crop yield is an important step in making sure people have enough to eat. And I'd be remiss if I didn't even give a try at helping out in that regard. But this is a little different.

I pulled an all-nighter last night and when I got home, I had a hot shower and hot meal. It seems now that's a commodity for far too many people. So this year, and this upcoming holiday season, help feed a family. If my words count for anything, it's worth more than a new iPod or iPhone or whatever new gadget there is out there anyway.