We recommend The Universal Living Wage Whitepaper, the comprehensive guide to an idea whose time has come, written by House the Homeless co-founder Richard R. Troxell, which can be read online or downloaded. There is a lot to absorb, but the basic ideas are easily...

Unfortunately, more still needs to be said about military servicemembers and suicide. The whole subject is fraught with political and emotional minefields. We discussed the “won’t accept help” trope, and the terrible barrier created by “bad paper” discharges that...

In the previous post, we learned that the servicemember suicide rate is not quite as high as what people go around saying. Forget about the frequently and erroneously cited 22 suicides per day — it’s “only” 20.6 per day. That is also an upsetting statistic, especially...

Last time we talked about some of the incidents described in Richard R. Troxell’s book, Looking Up at the Bottom Line. Back in 1989, there was talk of decommissioning Bergstrom Air Force Base, right outside Austin. Richard set out to gather support for the idea of...

Pictured on this page is one of the smartest and most beloved Texans who ever shared thoughts with the world. His bio says, National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and New York Times best-selling author, Jim Hightower has spent four decades battling the...

People who have lost everything, and who sometimes are made to feel like they are nothing, need to be reminded that they are not stupid or helpless. People need to know they still have something to bring to the table, and the world is just a little bit better because...

House the Homeless talks a lot about American military veterans, because they are said to make up one-third of the national population of people experiencing homelessness. A case could be made that no one, of any political persuasion whatsoever, is pleased. No matter...

Apple Computer Inc. announced its plan to build a new billion-dollar facility in Austin, TX, which will practically triple the number of its employees in the city. When that is achieved, Apple will be Austin’s largest private employer. (The rewards and incentives...

The beginning of the year is a wonderful time to ponder the question, “What can I do?” Here are some inspirational stories of things that real people have done, can do, and are doing — specifically, about hunger. As the federal government subtracts from the funding...