Heart-breaking hard times for kids in Obama's America - Sixty Minutes: Hard times generation: homeless kids

CBS News, Sixty Minutes: Hard times generation: Homeless kids,
First aired: March 6, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
From the Sixty Minutes website: 
For some children, socializing and learning are being cruelly complicated by homelessness, as Scott Pelley reports from Florida, where school buses now stop at motels for children who've lost their homes.

Story at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/60minutes/main20038927.shtml

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I originally had a lot to say about this Sixty Minutes segment from Sunday night's show but my draft of those comments was accidentally deleted this morning, and I'm exhausted, so this will have to do instead:

The emotionally-draining situation they describe -homeless individuals or families cleaning themselves at Walmart- is one that I actually used to see over at the Arlington County govt. HQ more often than you'd think in the 1990's when I lived in Arlington.

Since I moved back to South Florida in late 2003, I've occasionally written emails to friends and posted something here about how Arlington County, even more than usual, acted like a dog chasing its tail in their own policies on the homeless.

In the view of many well-informed people I knew -plus me- the County often seemed to be focused almost entirely on appeasing well-organized groups "helping" a segment of the homeless population, not entirely from Arlington, that, to me, at times resembled nothing so much as a very pushy and indignant voting bloc of the CDU under Helmut Kohl, constantly going on about what they wanted and needed, while simultaneously, the County seemed genuinely blind to instances where some assistance could really help some Arlington County families keep it together in their own homes.

It was hard not to notice that the constantly complaining spokes in the wheel, not the truly deserving, got the grea$e.
And that was before the foreclosure epidemic hit the country.

Friends and acquaintances of mine who travel across Florida more than I do now say they see a LOT MORE families cleaning-up in Florida Turnpike rest stops in the morning than they ever remember seeing.


Below, something I posted in January of 2010 on hemlösa, featuring the amazing Yohanna.

Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" - HD -Dec. 15, 2009, TV3

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, December 15, 2009 in Stockholm, for TV3's broadcast of "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVtoGYXsG4w


For more Yohanna videos, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA

Yohanna's trip to Finland in May: Thank You for the Music; Into Your Arms; Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

I'd been meaning to post this video of Yohanna rehearsing in Kuopio, Finland two months ago, capturing her singing both an ABBA favorite, Thank You for the Music, as well as Nick Cave's Into My Arms.

Though I've spoken of Yohanna more than a few times here in the past, I think even more than the previous videos of hers that I've shared here -the last new one being from a Christmas show in Stockholm that aired on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), where she sang a few songs, including a tremendous version of Don't Save It All For Christmas Day, see my January 1st post, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/wow-yohanna-sings-dont-save-it-all-for.html - you can really see her tremendous earnestness and sense of purpose.
Of, quite literally, wanting to get every note and chord just right

Over the weekend, while I was watching a Marlins-Padres ballgame on TV, a friend from overseas with a good memory emailed to remind me about a couple of posts I'd talked about in the abstract that had yet to materialize in this space yet.

You may well recall some of these as well, from prior posts of mine or thru emails, but as it happens, one concerned Yohanna's trip to Finland -Suomi.
I'd told her previously that my plan was to put this video and some comments up over the Memorial Day weekend, sometime between watching the Indy 500 and the anti-climatic NCAA Lacrosse Mens Championship game between Duke and Notre Dame, but that, well, she hadn't seen it yet.
Oops!!!

Having received that gentle reminder, I'm now sharing the video that Tiia Santavirta first uploaded for Chaos Tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TiiaSantavirta

More photos of the trip are available at http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/ and more Yohanna videos can be seen at the TeamYohanna YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA

Wow! Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (HD)

To start the New Year off right, in a positive mood, I'm going to a new favorite of mine this
past year, with Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, a.k.a. Yohanna.

I wrote in this space many, many months ago, much as I had earlier -and justifiably so- for Molly Sandén and Esmée Denters: Hennes enorma talang kunde knappast vara
mer uppenbar!
Her enormous talent could hardly be more obvious!


I was more accurate about that than anything else I wrote here all year.


For your perusal, below, along with the teaser, from just two weeks ago on Dec. 15th in Stockholm, for TV3's Dec. 23rd and 25th broadcast of her amazing performance at their "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"




If you've heretofore neglected to take my sage advice to heart, do yourself a favor and start
the new year off right and take a listen to Yohanna's amazing voice for yourself at
http://www.youtube.com/user/yohannamusic
and
http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and
http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic


You can watch the entire video of the broadcast, by turns beautiful and thoughtful, and just under
59 minutes, at: http://www.tv3.se/play/224911

Once there, click Fullskärm for full screen and best viewing.
The audio is superb.


I should mention as a bonus delight that the second song played here is Yohanna singing
the song she sang in Moscow at Eurovision and captured second place with, Is It True.
I hardly need tell you at this point that she's amazing here, as per usual.
But she is.

I realize that many, if not most of you, won't know whom everyone singing and speaking
is, per se, but trust me, it's well-worth seeing for yourself, and shows what you can put on
television if you genuinely have the desire to put quality first.

It beats the hell out of any original holiday programming that you saw on American TV
networks over the past two weeks -as if there was any!

Don't hold your breath thinking that COMCAST is going to do anything half this quality if
they get the govt. okay to buy NBC-TV.

And besides, what's the point of my having a blog if I can't share with you here, something
that I personally find of great value and pleasure?



Gott Nytt År!