I’m heading back home to the DC Metro area tomorrow but I wanted to blog about three observations I’ve made in traveling back and forth from Manhattan to Hartsdale, NY to visit mom & sis. The first thing was an ad I saw in a subway car about a local police union that wanted to take police officers off of desk jobs and get them on the street. They want civilians at desk jobs. It makes sense when you think about it. If the public is asking for more police officers on the streets, wouldn’t you want to take them off of desk assignments (providing that they are not on a desk job for a medical reason)?

The second thing that drew my attention happened while riding in a cab in Hartsdale. I overheard someone on the radio talking about the Bowery Mission in NYC. The voice on the radio struck me as he spoke with passion and conviction about the Bowery Mission helping a homeless woman in poverty. If I recall correctly, she was sleeping on the streets until someone told her about the Bowery Mission. I went to the Bowery Mission’s website this morning and viewed a video that goes into detail about what they do. I’ve embeded it below.

As a deist while I may not like the religious tone of the Bowery Mission I applaud and salute them! In the war on poverty–a war that’s been fought for centuries–we need everyone working together. Non-profit organizations such as churches &c., have always played a major role in fighting poverty. As they say in Bowery Mission’s video “tonight thirty-six thousand men, women & children will sleep in New York City’s shelters.” “Nearly four thousand more will sleep in the subways and on the streets.” At this time I always like to interject with some thoughts from Joel Berg who has said that NGO’s alone cannot end poverty the government has to do more. Of course government spending is always a problem, but we need to evaluate what we spend on and reallocate funds to what is important.

Lastly, riding in a subway car heading from E 86th Street back to Grand Central Station yesterday I happened to read one of the MTA’s Subway Talk “Train of thought” posters. The poster displayed an interesting quote.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

This morning I did not entirely remember the quote but Googled something I paraphrased, and lo and behold, Google actually found the right quote and who it was attributed to! The author is Arthur Schopenhauer.