Hurricane Season To Exacerbate Food Insecurity

June 1 marked the official start of hurricane season. When hurricanes hit they can demolish homes, devastate communities and displace people. In most cases electricity is cut, and keeping food fresh is impossible. Food insecurity is a significant dilemma that always emanates in the event of a disaster like a hurricane. An estimated seven million…

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Anti-Homeless Laws Across the U.S. Criminalize Survival

U.S. cities with a high number of people without housing keep passing new laws to push unhoused people out of view. Camping is often banned, as well as sleeping in public and living in vehicles. People are routinely evicted from encampments, many losing their belongings. Government restriction of these essential, life-sustaining activities criminalizes the very…

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Food Insecurity Rising Rapidly: Who Is Being Affected?

Food insecurity is defined as the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food to live an active, healthy lifestyle. It might mean that sometimes you have enough food and sometimes you have healthy food but rarely do you have enough healthy food. Food insecurity is at the worst…

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People Without Housing Targeted by City Ordinance in Austin

Early voting on a city ordinance to sweep people without housing out of view is underway in Austin.  A ban on public sleeping was lifted in 2019, but now Austin’s homelessness problem has become too visible for some. A May 1 vote will determine whether or not to criminalize being homeless again. Hundreds of jurisdictions…

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Inmates Face Aftermath of Toxic Flood in Florida Jail

Little over a week ago in Florida, hundreds of people (some 315 homes) were evacuated after a leak at Piney Point wastewater reservoir near Tampa. A local jail was also threatened by flooding with toxic water, yet it was only partially evacuated. Most of Manatee County Jail’s prisoners (700+) were crowded upstairs, left behind to…

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People with Disabilities Struggle in the Wake of the Blizzard 

They say natural disasters don’t discriminate but one would be hard pressed to investigate a hurricane, earthquake, or blizzard in which one particular demographic wasn’t disproportionately hit: the disabled community. The freezing weather swept in on Valentine’s Day weekend and tore through multiple states. Widespread power outages and bursting pipes ensued, flooding homes and leaving…

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Thinking About Our Pale Blue Dot

Astronomer Carl Sagan, who would have turned 86 today, once wrote: “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” We’ve been asking you lately to imagine what a truly humanist world would look like. A world in which poverty, hunger, and environmental destruction are relics of the…

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A Call to End State-Sanctioned Violence

An uprising for racial justice is sweeping the country. News and videos of state-sanctioned violence have flooded our televisions and social media, raising our awareness of the countless Black men, women, and children whose lives have been violently stolen. We know some of their names: Tony McDade. George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Atatiana Jefferson. Eric Garner. Tamir…

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The Radical Past and Present of Mutual Aid

In the past couple months, you may have noticed an explosion of mutual aid societies responding to the COVID-19 pandemic—groups which share housing, food, health care, goods, or transportation while drawing attention to the politics of inequity. The idea is nothing new. Frequently-cited historical examples of mutual aid organizations include unions, 19th century Friendly Societies,…

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Confirmation bias is human, but is it humanist?

This article is part of a series written by guest contributors exploring how to incorporate humanist values into their everyday lives. The opinions expressed in this article may not necessarily express those of Foundation Beyond Belief, its staff, or donors.  I start nearly every weekday morning the same way. I drink hot tea, eat peanut butter…

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