DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! And now, for some links:

How the city bought a homeless vet a house “Jackson, an ‘O3-11 grunt,’ or rifleman in the United States Marine Corps in the 1970s…who grew up on the city’s streets and has spent the past two decades scouting apartment basements, vacant buildings and even dump trucks to sleep in, said this was ‘definitely a good spot, one of the better ones.’” (Greater Greater Washington)

Anti-Abortion Billboard Seeks the Help of Black Men “The abortion industry has created a culture of abandonment. Responsibility has become someone else’s concern, and death the solution to ‘unplanned’ pregnancies — the natural result of sexual behavior,” Ryan Bomberger, Black pro-life and adoption advocate…“There’s nothing natural about an industry that generates over $200 million, annually, by killing a child left defenseless by the absence of a father.” (BET.com: Blogs)

Some of the faces behind the new US poverty figures; for many it’s first brush with being poor “At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem. ‘It’s like there is no way out,’ says Kris Fallon.”(The Washington Post)

Defining Race Has Never Been Easy “Once, when I was growing up in Arizona, my mother and father sat with me in front of a mirror and let me take in the differences in our three faces. My dad is part African American and part Sioux Indian, and his skin is very dark. My mom, an Ohioan of German descent, is white…My face is a chestnut color, accompanied by brown eyes and a soft nose that’s wider than my mom’s but narrower than my dad’s. ‘What am I? I asked them that day. I was 6 years old. ‘You’re you,’ they said.”(Good)

D.C. Council appears poised to raise taxes on wealthy “The D.C. Council appears poised to raise taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents when it meets Tuesday, creating a new top bracket for wage earners with a taxable income of at least $350,000 annually…According to an analysis by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, about 6,000 D.C. residents have at least $350,000 in taxable income…” (The Washington Post)