5,000 were served dinner last night at our local vets memorial building; when the Rescue Mission began this service at Thanksgiving 19 years ago, they had 300 dining. 49 million of our fellow U.S. citizens are living in poverty. What’s going on? The film “Inequality for All” in theaters recently and certainly worthy of a Best Documentary nomination helps explain. Focusing on Robert Reich, economist, author and Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, it is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Everyone, including every Congressperson and Senator should see it, but of course they won’t.

Another film  everyone should see is “Chasing Ice“–about the work of National Geographic world-famous photographer James Balog and his project of recording the demise of the world’s glaciers and the consequences for climate change and life on earth. Beautiful and terrifying. Stunning and timely. NetFlix it; buy it and show it at a house party.  Same for “Inequality for All.” The attention and respect that Reich’s young audience gives him during his talk at the end of the film is the thing that gave me hope, however slim, for humanity’s survival in an inevitably transforming world.