West Wing and the Census

I am a huge fan of West Wing. At home, Chris and I are working our way through the many delightful seasons, which are all available for perusal on DVD. Here is one of my favorite topics from West Wing, which is particularly relevant since 2010 is a year for US Census.

I had an appointment yesterday with a funny guy who is working on the census numbers to count the homeless. My church is listed as a shelter because we participate in the Room in the Inn program, which allows 12 men to stay here overnight during the coldest months of the year, have 3 good meals, wash their clothes, etc. We do this once every two weeks. The days between their visits with us, they spent nights at other places of worship in the city. This year, on March 29, US Census workers will travel to all of the homeless shelters that are open to count the number of people.

I am excited about this for several reasons:

• I got to participate in the US Census! (Well, kind of)
• The Census does not forget to identify the homeless.
• I got to participate in the US Census!
• The Census is also conscious enough of the homeless to realize that they are transient, so in order to get a relatively accurate head count, they must be counted when they are in one place for the night.

One of the biggest overarching problems with people in need is that fact that we so often choose not to see them. It is nice to see at least one instance where the government and others are actively seeking to know who they are.

Of course, there are still miles to go.