The Postal Service's campaign to Stamp Out Hunger™

If you're a US resident, you probably got the same postcard in your mailbox this week that I did today, or you may get it tomorrow. The one from the U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (the mailmen's and -women's union) advertising their special effort this weekend to raise supplies at the nation's food banks and awareness of hunger in the populace.

That anyone, anywhere in the wealthiest, most prosperous nation on the face of the planet should be starving, or worrying about starving, is a scandal to the jaybirds. Yes, I know, you've heard me say this before, and until it's no longer happening, you're gonna damned well keep right on hearing me say it. There is no excuse—none—for there to be hunger in this country, or anywhere in the world at this technologically advanced stage of agriculture. Period. Paragraph.

I'm not talking about the pang you get along about dinnertime if you happened to skip lunch. I'm talking serious hunger, African-famine hunger, to where you dive into dumpsters for scraps or have to haunt soup kitchens on a daily basis because you can't get work, for one reason or another. I'm talking poor, un- or under-employed single mothers worrying about how they're going to feed their kids dinner on any given night. I'm talking senior citizens attempting to exist (don't you dare try calling it "living") on dog food and meager Social Security checks, some with no pension and no family or friends to help out. I'm talking malnutrition, deficiency diseases, birth defects, even death in the street. All of this happens right here in the good old U.S.A., people, every single day. And it just plain stinks to high heaven, in my opinion, that more of us don't at least try to do something about it.

Too many people and families starve every day here. Too many children go to bed without dinner when they didn't even do anything to deserve it. And too many families are only one paycheck, or one catastrophic illness or accident, away from being in the same leaky boat. Where's the outrage? Where's the horror? And most important of all, where's the goddamn solution?!

I don't pretend to be the least little bitty-bit sure, but I think it may well lie with each and every one of us. And apparently, the USPS, the NALC and the makers of V-8 juices and Campbell's soups think so too. So this Saturday, I'm leaving a bag of non-perishable, non-glass-containered food out for my USPS carrier to pick up...and I hope at least some of you will, too. It's an easy and not-too-costly way to help—and it will make you feel a whole lot better about scarfing down that half-pound steak dinner.

Go to HelpStampOutHunger.com if you want to know more. (Addendum: Georgia is among the top 5 states with Web-surfers signing up. For once, I'm proud to be a resident of the Peach State.)

To borrow a phrase from cadhla, "I am full of SQUEE!"

My first day at the prospective employer's print shop in Kennesaw today went well. The guy who'd interviewed me is my supervisor, and he told me that at first he was a trifle worried (I'd mis-remembered the model number of platesetter I worked with in my last job—"2340" rather than "2840"—leading me to name one which his people told him doesn't exist; this was the worst gaffe, but he was charitable and chalked it up to a memory-fart over one digit), but eventually I settled in, learned where things were and how these folks do stuff, and produced enough decent work quickly enough to please him. He said that even if he ended up deciding I wasn't who he wants for the perm job or I got hired somewhere else, he would be open to having me do part-time freelancing for him as a way to bring in extra work for him and bucks for me. And he's even cool with me continuing to interview at other places, even to the point of allowing me a half-hour to step out of the office tomorrow morning and conduct a phone interview for that Pennsylvania job. I like this guy, even if so far the work itself is more short-order-cook-type stuff, fixing typos in business cards and the like.

And eftychia posted the chorus of my song "If I Can Reach Your Heart" as his Quote of the Day on his LJ today.

And Paladin Staffing called to say their client whose graphics job I applied for this week wants to interview me Tuesday.

Life may not be a bowl of strawberries with chocolate syrup and whipped cream quite yet, but it is getting noticeably better. It is even possible to dare a tiny hope that I shall be back among the gainfully employed again by the time my Songbird gets back from her vacation Sunday night.