The American Anti-War Crowd

"We should not want to propagate the negative energy of war. We should be sending more energy of peace and of love to heal our planet and to heal our people." -- Darlene Dancy, community activist and anti-war protester.

Several hundred protesters recently gathered outside the White House to galvanize the nearly dormant U.S. anti-war movement.

Protester Darlene Dancy also sold $10 tee-shirts printed with slogans which read "Peace," "Bring U.S. troops home," and "We need a peaceful solution for a difficult situation in Afghanistan."



She said money from the tee-shirts would be used to support the peace effort, as well as groups helping the needy in America.

"We must rally, protest, and march to exercise our civic capacity to bring about real change," said the keynote speaker, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

A former U.S. presidential candidate and constant critic of U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kucinich asked the crowd: Where is America's security when millions in the United States face joblessness, foreclosures, and out- of- reach health care?

Many of the protesters said they had voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, but now oppose his decision to send more troops to fight in Afghanistan.

Several protesters also disagreed with his recent Nobel Peace Prize, and they didn’t like his Oslo acceptance speech, during which he said war is sometimes needed to defeat evil and establish lasting peace.

The protesters seemed energized and promised more demonstrations in the months to come, even though their numbers at this rally were quite small.

A Homeless "Cat in the Hat"

"I found out within the last couple of years who my best friend is. And my best friend is the mirror. Because every time I look in the mirror, I see myself. I see a person who has been through a lot. I see a person who put so much trust in other people and I was doing it wrong all the time. I was supposed to put trust in myself." Phil Black, vendor of the homeless newspaper, Street Sense, in Washington, D.C.

When Phil Black sees himself in the mirror, he also sees his tall, red-and-white-striped hat.

The hat is like the one worn by the mischievous title character in "The Cat in the Hat" children's book, written by the popular author Dr. Seuss.

Black’s eye-catching hat helps draw attention to the special newspaper he is selling. Street Sense is a 16-page bi-weekly paper about homeless people that’s written largely by the homeless themselves. Like its companion website, the paper provides a forum for D.C.’s homeless community and raises public awareness. And it empowers homeless vendors like Black, who get 65 cents for every one-dollar-copy of the paper they sell.

Black became homeless after ulcers from work forced him to quit his job and medical bills left his finances in ruins. His wife and two daughters also left him.

But he has now reinvented himself as a newspaper salesman and neighborhood guru. He hawks Street Sense in an upscale Washington neighborhood, engaging passers-by near a busy metro stop and just outside a pharmacy, inviting them to learn what the city’s homeless have to say.

Growing Pains of Health Care

"What people don't understand or don't realize … until it's unfortunately way too late, is that you buy into a system that feeds you the notion that it's there for you. You pay so that you are cared for, but in reality, when push comes to shove, and you really need the system, the system is not there for you." -- Sandra Lemaire, a VOA employee, who is trying to get her mother on Medicaid, which extends health benefits to the ailing poor.

"The large majority of the population, who are middle class people, who have worked all of their lives, squirrel money away, and pay insurance all their lives, they don't qualify for anything. Insurance does not pay for long term care." -- Pascale Lemaire, Sandra's sister.

While the debate over health care reform rages on in the United States, many people and families are struggling to pay for their medical needs. Some attention has been given to the nearly 50 million uninsured in America, but those who have been insured all their lives also struggle.

This is the story of the Lemaire family, which has been hit hard by the misfortunes of bad health and rising medical bills. Sandra spends hours every day helping her ailing parents after working full shifts for the English webdesk of the Voice of America. Her father, who also used to work at VOA, suffered an aneurysm last year.

Shortly after he returned from the hospital, his wife suffered from the same severe predicament, a dangerous blood-filled dilation of a blood vessel, and eight months later, she remains in a nursing facility, attached to tubes, unable to speak, and barely able to twitch. Sandra visits her every day, and has hired a lawyer to try to find a way to cut down on monthly medical bills which are in the tens of thousands of dollars, and are quickly decimating the family's savings.

Pascale, her sister, a freelance hairstylist, stays at home with her dad, who also needs full-time assistance to get by. Pascale has had to cut down on her working hours, and can no longer afford health care for herself. She says she feels she is about to have a nervous breakdown.

This is just one family's story and some of their opinions about the state of health care and the need for reform. There are other opinions out there, with many Americans expressing fears the government will spend too much money to reform the system, and tax too heavily to create wider insurance, as Jim Malone's radio report indicates. Opponents of a so-called public option plan, where the government would provide insurance, say that is like socialism. In the U.S. political context, that is almost as bad as terrorism. Those who support a government-run alternative to private insurance say they will be very disappointed if such a plan is not pushed through Congress, as now seems possible.

Town hall meetings were held across the United States in August to discuss the future of health care, erupting at times with yelling and people tearing up each other's placards. Opponents have started showing up at events where President Barack Obama is speaking with guns and rifles in states where this is allowed, making some in the crowd very uncomfortable.

President Obama once said opponents are trying to turn this debate into his "Waterloo," in reference to the town in Belgium where a 19th century battle ended the rule of European emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. But as Kent Klein reports the president is battling with all his might to make discussions civil and avoid his own demise.

Helping Victims of the "American Dream" of Homeownership

"A lot of my clients are disabled women and elderly women… Brokers didn't care that they couldn't pay the (mortgage) loan because the house, they thought at the time, would always be more valuable than the loan." -- A Florida attorney.

The current economic crisis in the United States is not just about companies going bankrupt, but also about individuals facing severe financial hardships.

In this vlog we meet lawyers in the southeastern state of Florida who are helping some of these people for free. They don’t want to add legal fees to their clients’ financial burdens. The lawyers say they want to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem.

When Florida’s housing bubble finally burst and its inflated real estate prices tumbled, state residents were especially hard-hit. Even as they struggled with impossibly hefty mortgage payments and mounting credit card debt, many homeowners lost their jobs and, often, their health insurance, too. Across Florida, home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies have soared. It’s a financial crisis with a human face.

This recent television report by Sean Maroney shows how some poor families have been forced to move into low-cost motels.

People need jobs more than ever right now, but as Julia Ritchey indicates in her radio report, U.S. jobless rates are climbing.

Another television report by Jeff Swicord shows how laid off workers in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania are trying to learn new skills to get new jobs.