Homeless Children In America Essay -- essays research papers fc

Homeless Children in America   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980’s (National Coalition for Homeless, 2014). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming homeless today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children that are homeless can become this way for a variety of reasons. Youth can be on their own, with no permanent residence or even usual place to sleep. They could have also been separated from their own homeless parents and placed in foster care or living with some of their relatives. A child could be part of a family that becomes homeless, or even belong to a single parent. The decline in low cost housing, which has been declining over the last 20 years, could be to blame for the amount of people on the streets. With the explosion of growth in the suburbs, these cities have created local governments that make it easy to keep low income housing out of their communities. Ideas such as redlining and predatory lending can lead to low income families not receiving the needed loans to move into housing, which can force them into the streets.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The programs to help the poor and homeless are few and far between. There are five general programs that assist those who are not able to provide for certain things, such as food, shelter and care for the children. These programs are Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Food Stamps programs, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Unemployment Compensation, and General Assistance. These programs are generally harder to get into than what most people think. People must meet strict requirements to be able to receive money from the federal government. For example, a household qualifies for the expedited service of the Food Stamp program, a family must have less than $150 in gross monthly income, be a migrant or seasonal farm worker with resources o... .... People refuse to get jobs once they are on welfare, which hurts their chances even more of saving up money to be able to buy or rent housing, which could force them eventually out onto the streets. Affordable housing is another issue that needs to be addressed quickly to alleviate the problem of homelessness. Low income housing is generally associated with crime and other undesirable characteristics, which force other communities to shun these types of housing proposals. I agree with the concept that the CWS is now implementing into their system, by not removing a child from their own household unless absolutely deemed necessary. By giving the child a chance to live in their own house and not be placed into foster care so quickly gives the child a future that would otherwise not be so great. Bibliography Baumohl, J. Homelessness in America. (1996). Phoenix, AZ: The Oryx Press. Kryder-Coe, J., Salamon, L.M. & Molnar, J.M. (1991). Homeless Children and Youth. New Brunswick, NJ: The Transaction Publishers. National Coalition for Homeless. (2014). How Many People Experience Homelessness? Web 10 April 10, 2015 http://www.nationalhomeless.org/numbers.html.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Confucius and Plato

Confucius and Plato Editor Ken Wolf, at the beginning of the essay Confucius and Plato: A Few Really Good People, poses the question: â€Å"What is the best way to create a strong society? † (Wolf 25) It was surprising to a novice student of philosophy how similar the ideas of the ancient Chinese sage Confucius and famous Greek philosopher Plato were. Although, Confucius and Plato both made major contributions to the development of society, they showed both similarities and differences in these three subjects: ruling class, education, and faith in humanity.Confucius and Plato both believed virtue and intelligence were key components to creating a strong society. Confucius thought anyone who has been educated had the capability to develop into a ruler. Whereas Plato assumed anyone could be educated, but only a few, those in the ruling class had the ability to reason and thus were qualified to rule. In addition, Plato gave credence to the idea of being born into the ruling class , that the quality to reason was an inherited quality. Confucius and Plato were both strong believers that order was another main factor in a strong society.Although they both had laws to maintain the order, Plato had less faith in people in general to behave in a civilized manner. Both Confucius and Plato were in favor of education and were teachers themselves. Confucius’s followers were the ones who wrote the Analects, which talked about how civilization depends on â€Å"humanity† and â€Å"propriety†. Plato actually wrote The Republic which talked about his ideal â€Å"philosopher-king†. Plato established the Academy, which taught principles of ethics and government, for 900 years. Confucius attempted to teach the ruler to become a better person, but failed.The concepts put forth by Confucius and Plato begin to differ more when faith in humanity comes into play. Confucius and Plato both wanted to think there was good in everyone, but Confucius believed more in a â€Å"†¦society in which human relationships—especially those within the family—were more important than laws. † (Wolf 27) Plato concluded that the people needed to be controlled for there to be order. That control was maintained through the law. They both sought out peace and harmony, although Confucius focused more on the behavior of individuals and Plato was interested in universal truth even though it probably would not be accepted,.Plato felt that if a person tried to bring enlightenment to the masses â€Å"†¦they would probably try to kill to him for telling such tall tales, disrupting their lives and challenging their accustomed beliefs. † (Wolf 31) Even today, most people would agree with Confucius and Plato about the importance of educating people in the development of a strong society. The idea of relationships as the basis of society may be summed up in: â€Å"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This Golden Rule seems to be as important to Western society as it was to Chinese society. However, the idea of a better quality of citizen that is better suited to lead society smacks of elitism and would definitely not be accepted in modern democracies. However, that does not mean that the elite educated class from Harvard and Yale has not been overrepresented in American leadership. So perhaps we have a ruling elite, but not as overt as Plato would like. A final thought from the essay would be: a harmonious and orderly existence is important to all societies.

Life after death Essay

Life after death is credible to a large extent, as there is a large of percentage of people who believe in it. A study carried out between October and November 2009 showed that out of 2,060 people, 53% believed in life after death, with 55% believing in heaven and 70% believing in the human soul in the UK. However, there are many problems with believing in life after death – not least the fact that there is no proof. As Hume might have said, ‘there aren’t enough witnesses’ and ‘testimony isn’t proof. ’ Some evidence put forward is parapsychological, such as near-death experience, mediums, and so on, though the data generated from such evidence is contested. While there may not be any hard evidence for rebirth, it provides advantages to those who believe in it, therefore attaining the label of credibility. For instance, there is an idea of moral value because if one is constantly reborn, one must constantly strive for good karmic effects. However, G. E Moore’s theory of ‘naturalistic fallacy’ might intervene because rebirth confuses moral ideas with factual information about how the world works. There is no means of verifying the principle of karma, and it assumes a dark view of reality with the inevitability of suffering. On the other hand, there is some psychological truth in the ideas of anatta and anicca, since an individual continues to grow throughout their life. Resurrection also delivers benefits for those who believe in it, thus making it credible to a large extent. It has a basis in tradition and is supported by evidence from Sacred Scripture, while it is also fair and encourages morality. However, many challenges to belief in resurrection have been centred on the fact that there is no available way to falsify claims concerning life after death. But, non-Christian sources agree that Jesus was executed by crucifixion and his disciples believe that he rose from dead. A Church persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, unexpectedly transformed into a believer after the resurrection. Verification is only possible in the weak sense of eschatological verification suggested by John Hick in his Celestial City analogy. John Hick is a materialist, who believes that the soul and the body are ‘psycho- physically’ unified. Hick explains in his Replica Theory, where he discusses how God makes it possible for people to be ‘replicated’ on a parallel universe. Hick talks about how the instantaneousness replication would be different from simply being transported from London to New York, he says all the individuals would know their dead and would be on a world populated by deceased individuals. His theory could be seen as incoherent because there is no evidence in science to suggest there is a parallel universe, however if you accept God’s omnipotent existence, this theory is plausible and does not depend on dualism. But, even Hick recognised the limits of his own theory and the fact that it is hypothetical in the extreme. It should be noted that this is an extending theory into the unknown and is purely hypothetical. To conclude, life after death is credible because believers avoid the limitations of rationality and focus on faith, rather than empirical evidence. While some philosophers like Bertrand Russell, argue that the hope of a better life in heaven relieves humans of responsibility for what happens on Earth and encourages a fatalist mentality, such beliefs may do the opposite and soothe fears of demise.