Hunger: Southwest Florida's Silent Epidemic

Feeding America's 2010 Hunger Study reported that 1 out of 4 children in the U.S. suffer from food insecurity, a term which describes many Americans' struggle to find their next meal. With Southwest Florida's declining wages and rising unemployment, thousands of people face hunger every hour, every meal, every day. The Harry Chapin Food Bank, a local provider of food and resources to pantries such as the Salvation Army, serves over 30,000 Southwest Floridians every month. The face of hunger in our community is not just one picture. Hunger does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, ethnicity, or education. Over 33% of clients own their own home, and several are college graduates. We are struggling together, and together, we can find the solution. With over a 150% increase in just 3 years, hunger in Southwest Florida has become an urgent, and very real issue for our community. The solution to hunger starts now, and it starts with you.

FGCU's Feeding the Soul student involvement group knows we all are a part of the solution, and they are down for the challenge. They are currently working with the local United Way House to collect donations toward their Food 4 U program, but this is not enough. Our community needs you to get involved in the fight against hunger. Here's how you can help right now. The Harry Chapin Food Bank is the haven for hunger services in our 5 county area. They are in need of food donations and volunteers on a daily basis to facilitate their mobile pantry initiatives and backpack programs to get food to those who need it the most. Last year, volunteers offered over a half million dollars in unpaid work, saving that money for food purchases and services to the hungry. You can make a difference for our entire community, one person at a time. For someone with food insecurity, hunger does not wait, and neither can we. Hunger stops now.

Too Bare for Air Fare- Is this Ad Too Suggestive for Consumers?

Today's article "Ryanair forced to scrap controversial 'sexist' ads" by Fox News reports a controversial decision over suggestive advertising.

This ad, published by the U.K airline Ryanair, has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over accusations of sexist content. Ryanair has fought back, explaining the picture was taken from a charity calendar previously released by the airline. They argue the ad is not sexist because the employees took these photos voluntarily. The ASA ultimately banned the ad, arguing the ad is "linking female cabin crew with sexually suggestive behavior".

Logically, as this is the opinion of the majority of consumers, the ASA has the authority to take down any suggestive material that would offend those it represents. However, I believe that making Ryanair take down the ad is a violation of their rights as a service provider. The ASA should interfere only in instances of threatening materials, but not suggestive ones.

Although the ASA has this authority, I don't believe they have provided any justifications for banning the ad. Yes, the ad is suggestive, but why should that be the sole reason to restrict the airline from producing materials to their selected audiences? The European Convention on Human Rights specifically outlines the right to freedom of expression, stating, "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression… without interference by public authority". This is no more offensive than a Victoria's Secret ad, which coincidentally has sold millions of dollars of merchandise to consumers. Noting V.S.'s enormous success with similar material, posting this model makes good business sense. Not only does Ryanair have the right to publish this ad, but they have good reason for doing so.

A Promise Caught in Poverty: How YOU Can Change Lives in Benin One Click at a Time

Denadi Marcelline is a mother. She is a wife, provider, and an entrepreneur. She is 38 years old with a husband and four children.

Although it has been established for hundreds of years, Benin has been robbed of its independence. This Sub-Saharan nation was a former slave port on the west coast of Africa until the French took over in the 19th century. Benin gained independence for a short 12 years from 1960 until 1972, but then the communist People's Republic of Benin gained control, and the country's hope of independence vanished until their final reemergence in 1990. The dictatorship left Benin's economy in ruin, and now they are trying to regain control.

In Denadi's country, roughly 1/3 of the country's population live below the poverty line, making less than $1.25 per day. Regional trade is crucial to Benin's economy, where over 75% of the population contributes to the trade market. Denadi is one of those people. Particularly challenging issues to this workforce include child labor, slave labor, and a widespread lack of women's wage equality.

Denadi is asking for $825 U.S. dollars to buy 25 pieces of fabric for her already expanding shop. She also has hopes for purchasing a large market share through a Finadev loan. However, she has only raised 3% toward her goal. She currently makes money enough to support her husband and children, but cannot afford to continue her business alone due to the devastating women's wage inequalities in Benin. She is a hard worker and an established businesswoman in her community. Your $50 contribution can help her reach her dreams and continue to support her dependent household and community. In 14 months, she expects to repay her loan in full. See Denadi's story and fund her future here.

Thousands of other women like Denadi Marcelline need your help. In 3rd world countries such as Benin, literacy and education are privileges many never experience. Often times, less than half or even 1/3 of the population have access to health care, women's services, or children's health services and life expectancy does not reach 60 years of age. Go to www.kiva.org to hear their stories and learn how you can help through microfinance and small business loans in developing countries like Benin.

The Voice of Many Nations

The Voice of Many Nations

I am the granddaughter of royalty,
born into the land of no decrees.
I am of the land of "saints, sinners and poets",
though I have never seen its rolling green hills.
History,  pride, and passion course through me
like Venetian waters.
I am a crusader, yet I have never seen war.
I am a Christian Irish- Italian,
but they call me "America".

Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: The American Muslim and Their Rights

In response to the article Japanese Internment: Why It Was a Good Idea-- And the Lessons it Offers Today by Daniel Pipes, I am first of all ashamed as a human being and also fearful for the security of our American liberties. As an author of the Middle East Forum, Mr. Pipes defends his view that Americans should have the right to specifically target certain groups based on faith, race, or ethnicity. He applied this concept to Muslim Americans after the attack on the World Trade Center, and then justified it based on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

In this wrongful imprisonment, Executive Order 9066 by President Roosevelt allowed for over 120,000 Japanese decedents in the U.S. (over 2/3 of them being citizens) to be directed to several "concentration camps" scattered across the plains and western coast. This order followed the 1942 attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting White-Anglo fear of Japanese American espionage in the developing war on Japan. During the war years, Japanese Americans were forced to live in these camps often separated from their families and stripped of their personal liberties. Daniel Pipes believes we should renew this "revisionist interpretation" on national security in light of September 11th, 2001.

Even more disconcerting is the Cornell Study Daniel Pipes cited in the article. Over 44% of the U.S. population agrees with him. Nearly half of our population defends targeting specifically Muslim Americans "either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring their mosques, or infiltrating their organizations."

Here's where Mr. Pipes went wrong. Terrorism does not identify with one nationality, faith, or skin color. Radical Christian terrorists have blown up abortion clinics, while radical Muslim terrorists have blown up office buildings in New York City. The identifier here is "radical", but tell me, can you point out a radical Muslim from a non-radical Muslim? If you can pick them from the group of over one million in the United States, then I suppose Daniel Pipe's view on national security is unnecessary. I would also venture to say that not all one million Muslims in the U.S. are radicals, and that all radical Muslims do not attend one mosque. Unless we are willing to sit next to FBI agents in our Baptist churches as well as Jewish synagogues, we cannot allow infiltration of strictly Muslim territories.

When did America become the land of the free and the land of "those people"? Is it justified in our founding documents that Americans can group discriminate against other Americans? Is our country one in which citizenship relies on valid documentation and due process, or is citizenship based solely on the color of our skin, the basis of our faith, or our national origin? If all men were destined by God to be created equally in 1776, then certainly they are still born equal in 2012.

Although Mr. Pipes ended his article with the claim that the Reagan administrations reparations were "premised on faulty scholarship", I find that moral wrongs are still wrong despite any hidden files, transcripts, or records. Ronald Reagan knew that it was morally unjust to strip those 120,000 American citizens of their rights, and that it was deserving of an apology. Furthermore, if Ronald Reagan's administration felt compelled to offer apologies and reparations for the Japanese-American internment of World War II, stripping American citizens of their rights is just as wrong today.