February 20th and 21st, 2008 airing from 7pm EST to 9am EST
At the 10th Annual Homelessness Marathon, from left to right, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, Bob Waterston; Fresno city councilperson Jerry Duncan; council person Cynthia Sterling; Homelessness Marathon host "Nobody," Fresno Mayor Alan Autry.
WHAT IS THE HOMELESSNESS MARATHON? It is a 14 hour radio broadcast featuring the voices and stories of homeless people from around the U.S. The Homelessness Marathon features live call-ins all night long via a national toll-free number. The Homelessness Marathon is available for free to all non-commercial stations.
WHERE DOES IT HAPPEN? Everywhere.
WHEN? The broadcast will start at 7PM(est) on Wednesday, February 20, 2008. It will end at 9AM(est) on Thursday, February 21, 2008.
NEWS & VIEWS:
The Homelessness Marathon needs your help. Donate here ----->
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES: At the Homelessness Marathon, we believe that the elimination of poverty is a moral duty for society. We believe that fulfilling this duty makes for a better society. And we believe that there are many ways to fulfill this duty, but that all of them should be guided by these principles... [read more]
LETHAL CAKEOLOGY: When I was a boy, I saw ads referring to products developed at "The Betty Crocker Institute." I imagined an ivy-covered campus around which professors strolled while discussing the finer points of cakeology. It took a while before I caught on that this "Institute" had all the substance of a mail-order PhD, but even so, I think it has more credibility than the "Manhattan Institute." At least what Betty Crocker put out you could swallow. [read more]
LET THE BUMS HAVE A FLOP: "Nobody," the founder of the Homelessness Marathon, gives some of his views on what keeps people on the streets. [read more]
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? Top Executive Pay At Selected Organizations Helping Hungry and Homeless People
Homelessness Marathon banner by Jeff Rountree.
HAS THE AMERICAN LEFT TAKEN AN HISTORIC WRONG TURN?
There was a time when the struggle for social justice in America was inseparable from the fight against poverty. Is that still the case today?
The chart below was compiled by entering terms into the search engines of various media and then recording how many “hits” they generated. This provides an imprecise but nonetheless helpful measure of how much attention these media paid to various issues. The figures are all from searches performed on 1/9/07.
The Nation
Democracy Now
Common-dreams.org
Truth-out.org
Mother Jones
NY Times
Time
Abortion
1010
245
2910
2770
1466
20,221
3649
AIDS
971
222
2980
1620
1529
33,459
20,371
Christian Coalition
636
97
1180
807
1831
26,864
1219
Cuba
440
433
2900
2300
312
16,383
4586
Gaza
345
662
2290
1640
217
8821
1711
Haiti
181
369
934
932
131
8796
1257
Hamas
192
360
1330
1420
205
3716
853
Health care
1010
411
9040
5790
9496
45,714
9986
Human rights
3700
1709
48,000
10,500
9777
40,905
13,263
Homelessness
72
18
325
212
319
3573
163
Racism
1720
222
1720
736
280
10474
1599
Sadr City
667
138
785
1380
2504
681
161
Wind power
247
39
1510
759
8364
46,485
3147
World Trade Organization
511
200
3610
987
11,273
67,163
2843
As anyone can see, there isn’t much difference between the left media and the mainstream media in terms of priorities. At The Nation, there were 13.5 hits on “AIDS” for every one on “Homelessness,” at Democracy Now there were 12.3, and at the New York Times, there were 9.4. At Commondreams.org there were 4.1 hits on “Hamas” for every one on “Homelessness,” while at Truthout.org there were 6.7 and at Time there were 5.2 (only Mother Jones had more hits for “Homelessness” than for “Hamas.”).
On the surface, at least, the millions of Americans who become homeless every year would seem to be just as unimportant to the left as they are to the powerful corporate oligarchs who control most of our nation’s media. But what kind of social justice movement doesn’t care about the poorest of the poor? At the Homelessness Marathon, we think that’s a question worth asking.
