Institutional Racism

The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual poverty figures recently that painted a dire picture of one in five children under 18-years-old lived in poverty in 2011. According to Bread for the World’s analysis of the hunger and poverty data, this includes 16.1 million children, or 21.9 percent. The numbers also indicate that over a quarter of all children under 5-years-old lived in poverty in 2011.

On August 6, 2012, President Obama signed the “Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012.” The new law offers extended care to service members based at Camp Lejeune when contaminated water caused major medical issues, and the law prohibits protests at military funerals in the two hours immediately prior to a funeral.

However, a missing factor was the mention of an issue debated in Congress for nearly five years, with the latest hearings taking in place in May 2012 concerning the Native American veterans’ healthcare.