Living in a city affords you many luxuries. Food from any region of the world is available nearby. Museums with invaluable treasures open their doors for free. A subway system lets you get around easily.

But a city also shows you the flipside. Homeless people camp in Rock Creek Park just off the bike path, in the three parks near my house, and in the doorways and bus shelter enclosures between the metro and my office. They open the door at the local CVS in hopes of getting a tip so they can buy food. They offer me blessings, even when I tell them I have no cash to give them. (Most are friendly; some are scary. But that’s true of all humanity, isn’t it?)

Estimates place the homeless rate in the D.C. metro area somewhere around 12,000. Given how many homeless people I encounter just in my daily life, I don’t doubt the number, although it saddens me.

Saturday I’m taking part in the Help the Homeless 5K Walkathon. All the money raised goes toward local agencies helping the homeless in various ways.

If you have the ability to contribute, please consider making a donation.

If you follow the link, your donation will benefit my designated charity — Martha’s Table.

Martha’s Table provides 200 low-income, at-risk children, teens, and their families with nutritious meals and supervised learning and literacy activities in a safe environment 365 days a year. McKenna’s Wagon, the seven-day-a-week mobile soup kitchen, feeds meals to the hungry and homeless daily at nine locations in the District. The Community Center for Healthy Living offers a family-centered Laundromat with an associated clothing distribution center and health education programs. Children and teens, ages 1-18 years old, are provided day care, after-school, weekend, holiday, and summer educational and recreational programs. 97% of the youth in the programs progressed to the next grade in school, and all the preschool and toddler-age children advanced to appropriate developmental levels. As part of the children and family programs, parents are educated and trained to enrich and strengthen their home environment to empower their children to thrive.

If you live in the area, please consider walking with me. Every little step matters, particularly if we take them together.

Today is Veteran’s Day. Take two minutes to remember those who died long ago to protect our country and to save our world.

Take two minutes to think about those who are overseas right now. When I see their dead compatriots’ names and ages flash across my tv every Sunday, I am reminded of how young those in the military really are.

In England, every Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., the nation goes silent in honor of Remembrance Day. The whole country. TVs and radios cease broadcasting for two whole minutes. People pause, in silence, for 120 seconds, no matter where they are. Can we do the same thing? Can we take that amount of time out of our busy lives to stop and remember?

When those we need to remember have given so much, how can we not give so little?

I’m setting my cell phone now to remind me at 10:59.

Get out there today and exercise the most powerful right you have as an American — voting. Without a populace that votes the idea of a democratic republic just doesn’t work.

I don’t care whom you vote for (okay, that’s an outright lie, but it’s much more important to me that you vote at all than that you vote the way that makes sense to me); it’s only relevant to me that you cast your ballot — be it on paper, in a booth, or on a computer.

Follow your conscience; whether it tells you to vote for a specific person, against a certain person, or in support of a party philosophy is between you and your ballot.

And, remember, you don’t have the right to complain later on about the outcome of the election or the decisions politicians make or that your taxes have gone up if you can, but don’t, vote today. Seriously — if you start complaining, I’m going to ask.

Congratulations on being an American today. The potential that every election holds is one of the things that makes this country great.

Edited to add the following two items:
It occurs to me that if you have children, you should take them to the polls. Yes, they’ll have to be patient and hang out while you stand in line. But the best way to create future voters is to demonstrate to them today the importance of the act. So, yes, bring the kids along with you when you vote. They don’t have to go into the voting booth with you. And they can run around the polling location a bit if it’s large enough to accomodate that. But it’s important that they get to see that voting is worth standing in line for or stopping off on the way home or making a special trip for.

Also, relevant to D.C.-area readers only: Once you’ve cast your ballot, make sure you stop by your local branch of Olsson’s. They’re giving a discount on certain items (like most merchandise? I don’t have my newsletter in front of me…) when you show them your “I voted” sticker.

I am very excited to see that a Bangladeshi microloan pioneer has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Microloans (or microcredit, as they are sometimes known) are a way to offer people in an impoverished background a small amount of money to create/improve a business. Loans are tiny by American standards — under $500 usually — and are used by people who would be turned down by standard banks because they lack financial collateral. There usually is no interest demanded and repayment is encouraged so that others in similar straits can also get ahead. This sort of financial system can be a real boon to people who might be discriminated against, like women who want to start a home-based business.

I first became aware of microfinance a few years ago while working at Wesleyan and I’ve touted the idea to Rudi a couple times as an example of the sort of program that really does seem to work. I’m glad to see it recognized in such a public way.

This year’s prize recipient is Muhammad Yunus, who created the Grameen Bank to manage the microcredit program in 1974. He has said he’s going to use his portion of the prize money to open an eye hospital and to create a food company aimed at the poor.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. There is nothing better than coming home from a trip. Walking in the door and being met by three cats who absolutely adore you is incomparable. They want nothing more than to sit on you to prevent you from ever leaving again (unless it’s to buy them some more cat food, of course).

2. The Mets have been playing remarkably well this year. Right now they have the best record in baseball and last night they became the first team to reach 90 wins for the season. It used to be that I’d go places wearing my Mets cap and people would greet me with sympathetic looks. This year, I’m greeted with, “How about those Mets?” Even in Salt Lake! It’s a nice feeling to be at the top for once.

3. Washington, D.C., is a Democratic city. 74% of registered voters are signed up as Democrats. We’re so Democratic, it’s a law that the City Council has to have two members of a “non-majority” party just so that it’s fair. So when the primary rolls around, essentially you’re electing the person who is going to assume power. This year we had two major positions open up — mayor and city council chairperson. Adrian Fenty, who is only a few years older than I, won the Democratic nod for mayor. He has a vision for where the city should go from here that many people think is exciting. And Vince Gray, formerly the executive director of Covenant House, won the primary for council chair, offering hope that the next iteration of the council will consider ways to attract businesses and to provide services to low-income families simultaneously. I didn’t vote for either of the two winners, but I am excited that they bring fresh blood and enthusiasm to their positions. May they help to keep D.C. a nice place to live.

What a fun project:Knit A River.

Sponsored by a London yarn shop, the goal of the project is to raise awareness with WaterAid about the lack of clean water for 1.1 billion people around the world. They are gathering 6″x6″ knit squares of blue that some blessed souls at the store will sew together to create a yarn river.

They’ll be accepting squares of any pattern or fiber into January. A nice way to use up any extra blue yarn from Christmas projects…

Finished squares can be sent to: I Knit, Knit A River, 7 Courthope House, Hartington Road, London, SW8 2HS.

If you are not a knitter, but would still like to help, please consider making a donation to WaterAid.