Because the media seemingly can focus its attention on only a few topics at a time, homelessness has been off the front burner for quite a while.
As I write, most of the media's efforts are being concentrated on the upcoming election. The continuing damage to families to whom circumstances have pushed them into poverty and its worst factor, homelessness, has not attracted enough attention from the press. Perhaps the GOP's hardhearted welfare bill that may condemn a million more children to hunger will win media attention.
The fact that Bill Clinton's endorsement of the bill has drawn relatively little outcry from the liberal wing of the Democrats would seem to say otherwise.
It is to be expected that Republicans, with their continuing interest in money and the moneyed, would ignore the important issue of homeless children and families. But it's distressing to see that liberal Democrats -- that much-maligned but essentially goodhearted collection of politicians -- have also paid scant attention to the plight of these innocent Americans.
Perhaps a new book by Yvonne M. Vissing will help correct this oversight. Out of Sight, Out of Mind (University Press of Kentucky, $38.95 cloth, $16.95 paper) will serve as a wake-up call to people in a position to do something to alleviate this horrendous problem.
Vissing points out that the numbers of homeless children and families in rural areas have increased dramatically over the past decade. Her book "describes (her) journey to identify and understand child and family homelessness in rural areas."
The photographs in this book demonstrate that homeless children "need emotional and physical protection, and they dream of what they will be tomorrow. Their parents struggle with the same issues as do other parents: they worry about their children being safe, happy, and healthy. They fret about jobs and money, they stew over relationships with one another, and they reflect about what happened yesterday and wonder what will happen tomorrow."
The book's author is an experienced pediatric sociologist. Her book contains numerous interviews with homeless families, interviews that make all too real the problems that have gone unchallengted for far too long.
The author observes that identifying the homeless in small towns and in farm country can be tricky, noting that "rural homelessness consists of psychological, cultural, and social dimensions that must not be overlooked." She points out that the Ohio Coalition for the Homeless has reported rural homelessness as "growing faster than we can keep track of it."
Because most books, guides, articles, and opinions about homelessness do not address the rural areas, small towns seldom know exactly what to do and how to do it. As a planning process, Vissing recommends these steps:
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