It is very cold today in Minnesota, with the high so far reaching -9. Last night it went down to -15. Tonight it is supposed to bottom out at -20.
Hey, it’s Minnesota. But it’s been cold this winter even for us.
Joy and I just came in from doing some errands to our warm and comfortable home. I tried to shovel the sidewalk that was covered again because of the blowing snow I had cleared yesterday.
The wind chill is around -30 right now. I came in after only a few minutes.
But I’m not worried about the cold. Our furnace is working fine so far. The wood stove insert we have in our fireplace is burning hot. We will have some hot soup and homemade bread for supper tonight.
Guess I shouldn’t think about the more than one and half million children who are living on the streets of American cities right now, or the several hundred we have here in the Twin Cities.
Maybe their mother or father or other adult they are with will get them to a shelter tonight, or to the home of a relative or friend.
Because schools are closed today – and maybe tomorrow – because of the extreme cold, I don’t know where they are spending the day. Maybe a mall somewhere. They can stay warm there.
We were at the Mall of America for a while. Saw a lot of children, but not sure if any of them was homeless.
I can’t help but wonder why all these children are on the street. What kind of parents do they have? Maybe they shouldn’t have had them in the first place since they obviously couldn’t take care of them? Why aren’t they working to put a roof over the heads of their kids?
Maybe they are, but just can’t make ends meet?
What I do know is that tonight when we go to bed we will lie down and cover ourselves we that amazing thing called an electric blanket, just as we have every night this winter.
But I’m afraid I may not sleep very well.
Bleeding heart liberal that I am, I’ll probably think about all the weapons of mass destruction our country owns and keeps building while we leave getting these kids off the street to agencies that cannot keep up with the demands.
I’ll get upset think about how much people complain about spending money on doing something about children and their parents who are homeless while we waste more money on military spending than most countries have to spend for everything.
It’ll be just like me to think about something President Eisenhower said one time: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
Wished he hadn’t said that. I might sleep better tonight.
But, then, whether he had said it or not, or whether I sleep well or not, the fact is there will be children in my city, my state, my country that will shiver all night, and will likely wake up tomorrow with nowhere to go to stay warm.
And we say to ourselves that we are greatest nation on earth.
Guess it all depends on what standard of measurement we use.
linnposts.com 
AMEN!!!!!!!
We seem to have forgotten what Eisenhower told us. I think that is a HUGE mistake. We have a Defense Dept budget of somewhere around $700B/year. Something is seriously wrong here, in my view.
That we have forgotten it reflects just how much the military industrial complex he also warned us against now controls our economy.
Thanks for you good “thinking” article, Jan. Reminds me of Jesus’ parable about the rich man and the beggar. Compassion seems to fall off the radar screen. I’m convinced that many would justify that these families are not deserving of help for so many warped reasons.
I too think about the homeless, suffering children, and cold homes with little food. I know they exist and that many things of this world are not correctly prioritized. Therefore, I have to reach for my Ambien!! 😚
Your post left me feeling overwhelmed. Then I remembered Kay’s mother telling her each one of us should lite a candle. We went through the closets and found 11 gently used coats. We ran to Marshalls and picked up 2 wool blankets for next to nothing. Went to the nearest crisis center. Maybe someone will be a little warmer tonight.
Thanks Jan and Kay for the inspiration!
Virginia. I think the issue of homelessness hits close to home for all of us who were raised in Fairview Heights. No doubt many families there were on the verge of being on the street, but I also know other families would have taken them in. That is actually what is happening in a lot of neighborhoods across America, but there are not enough homes to take them all in. It’s a problem government simply has to be involved in.
Thank you, Ed. You set an example to follow! Seriously.