#Inequality Soars, Corporations Profit While Children Go Homeless #BAD14

graphic: US Uncut

Unequal access to natural resources, to a living wage, and to education have skyrocketed during my lifetime in the empire currently hogging the planet. The U.S. has seen income disparity growing by leaps and bounds, and child poverty ballooning as a result. A working class parent can no longer keep food on the table in many of our communities. A working class college student can no longer keep a roof over her head. Even if she works two jobs.

How did this happen?

graphic: Jan Kloub

Moneyed interests have bought influence in all the highest offices of the nation. No candidate for Congress or the White House gets there without endorsement from the corporate "persons" with the big bucks for campaign finances.

This situation has a lot of bad consequences. Let's examine one: billions of taxpayer money gone missing in Iraq. How many low income housing vouchers or school lunches would $14 billion have funded?

The number of homeless students in the U.S. has now reached a record breaking 1.26 million. This was reported to me by the National Education Association, the union I belong to as a teacher. The NEA has never managed to connect the dots between their slavish support of the Democratic Party and its policies of endless enrichment for military contractors on the backs of the poor.

My Codepink associate Janet Weil just shared news that CP joined 999 others (including the NEA) to sign a petition calling for more funding for children's nutrition programs. Her comment says it all:

Proud of us for signing on, sad this is even necessary. Meanwhile, nuclear weapons get $100 billion for "modernization" and Lockheed Martin et al. are seeing big profits.

graphic: Katie Falkenberg, CODEPINK Colorado

This blog post is part of Blog Action Day 2014. See more at blogactionday.org .