All of us feel compassion for the thousands of people in Houston and now in Florida who have been forced into shelters and rendered homeless by Mother Nature’s fury. While this reaction is commendable, allow me to call to your attention to a similar situation much closer to home.
Here in the New York metropolitan–Long Island area, there are currently more than 70,000 men, women and families living in homeless shelters—including more than 25,000 children. They are in shelters not due to a fierce storm, but to other circumstances just as daunting—chiefly poverty.
Let us share some of our compassion for our own neighbors who are less fortunate than us.
—Dave Golbert