From: Gregory Brown < Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 11:52 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 09/28/2014 Attachments: Untitled attachment 00335.docx; Bill Bojangles Robinson bio.docx; Untitled attachment 00338.docx; Creedence Clearwater Revival bio.docx DEAR FRIEND <=b> Just released U.S. Census Bureau data=reveal 45.3 million people were poor in America in 2013. One in three of t=ose who are poor is a child. Children remain our poorest age group a=d children of color and those under five are the poorest. More =han one in five infants, toddlers, and preschoolers were poor during their=years of greatest brain development and vulnerability. Black ch=ldren saw no decrease and continue to have the highest child poverty rates=in the nation. In 20 states more than 40 percent of Black child=en were poor and nearly one in five Black children were living in extreme =overty with an annual income of less than half of the poverty level or $33=a day for a family of four. Although the percentage of poor chi=dren dropped in 2013 for the first time since 2000, from 21.8 percent (16.= million) in 2012 to 19.9 percent (14.7 million), there were still 1.3 mil=ion more poor children than in 2007 before the recession began. =p class="MsoNormal"> <=pan style="font-size:12ptline-height:17.1199989318848px;font-family:Geo=gia,serir>it is a moral disgrace that child poverty in the U.S. is higher=than adult poverty, higher than for children in almost all other competito= nations, and higher than our country with the world's largest eco=omy should ever allow. Wealth and income inequality are still a= record high levels and opportunity gaps are widening. What values and pri=rities do these unjust realities reflect? Isn't i= time to reset our moral and economic compass? If we want to build a stron= workforce, military, and economy and ensure the most basic tenets of opportunity for the most vulnerable, we must