Editor’s Note: This post is my contribution to Blog Action Day, joining thousands of other bloggers to write about one topic for a single day. This year’s topic is poverty.

On my recent trip to New York City, among the glamor and the excitement that engulfs the city is a site familiar to anyone who has walked that city’s streets.

The homeless. The needy. The poor.

Some residents in the area may have become immune to site of beggars on the streets and I can understand why. Walking past them I was torn between whom to give the money to…there were so many. Would they use my money for food and shelter or to buy booze and drugs to help briefly lessen their pain? I didn’t know.

It sadly crystallized for me how monumental a problem poverty is in the United States.

Recent statistics are even more painful to comprehend:

• 37.3 million people live below the official federal poverty level, which was $20,614 for a family of four in 2007. This number is up from 36.5 million in 2006.

• The number of people who are poor by the official government standards is more than to the combined populations of Iowa, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Colorado, New Hampshire and Idaho.

• Almost half of all Americans will have experienced poverty for a year or more at some point in their lives by the time they reach age 60.2

I have worked for many years as a leader in my parish for the Catholic Charities campaign in the Diocese of Buffalo. There are many truly valuable services provided by Catholic Charities in my city and yours. One of those services is help for the poor. Catholic Charities agencies serve one in every 10 people living in poverty.

Catholic Charities USA has established a formal program that you can participate in to encourage a focused effort to significantly reduce the problem of poverty for people in the United States. Catholic Charities’ Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America. The campaign provides a multitude of ways for you to get involved in this fight and help reduce this problem. It starts when you register.

I hope you will register. I hope you will donate. And like me, I hope you will remember not to forget those less fortunate than us.

Please consider participating in Blog Action Day 2008 if you haven’t already registered by clicking here. Thanks very much.

Tags: blog action day, commentary, public service announcement by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you haven’t already registered, please do so by clicking here.

It would be well worth your time to post your ideas on the topic of poverty (this year’s theme), no matter the normal focus or theme or your blog.

Poverty is not a Republican or Democrat or Green Party issue. It’s a universal, non-denominational and indiscriminate catastrophe that we all need to address in whatever way we can.

It could easily be anyone of us at any time.

Thanks very much.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Tags: blog action day, commentary, public service announcement by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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We’re right about in the middle of hurricane season in the U.S. and it looks like it’s going to be another hard season.

If you know of any broadcast, cable or internet outlets that can use this PSA (public service announcement), please forward this post or this PSA to them.

LISTEN – Public Service Announcement

[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/080914_RedCross_Hurricane_FINAL.mp3]
Click here to download the Red Cross Hurricane PSA!

As always, we’re not looking for compensation or publicity, just an outlet to broadcast the request for donations all to benefit the American Red Cross. There are no usage restrictions on this audio as long as it is used in its entirety.

If you want to record the PSA yourself for your station, here’s the script.

The physical damage is severe but the emotional toll is catastrophic. The 2008 hurricane season in the United States is upon us and as always, the American Red Cross stands ready to help.

The Red Cross is sheltering thousands along the Gulf Coast while preparing to shelter more along the Atlantic coast as storms approach.

They are mobilizing Red Cross people, our fleet of emergency response vehicles and mobile kitchens.

The Red Cross is also delivering meals and clean up supplies across the Gulf Coast and staging food and supplies along the Atlantic coast.

Please support the American Red Cross as they once again support Americans in their time of need.

Donate now by visiting Red Cross dot org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. To donate $5 right now, text the word “give” to the number 24357, or spelled out as the number 2, HELP.

Support the American Red Cross as they help Hurricane Disaster Victims again this year.

And if you could throw the American Red Cross a couple of bucks in the effort, that would be good too.

Please note in the comment section of media to whom you have sent this to or (if you’re the media) what outlet you are from.

Thanks for being a good person.

Tags: commentary, public service announcement by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Tonight, the anchors and managing editors from ABC News, CBS News and NBC News will take over our televisions in prime time.

And it won’t be about an election.

SU2C. Stand Up to Cancer. Please watch and, if you can, please give. Thanks!

Tags: ABC News, CBS News, commentary, NBC News, public service announcement, stand up to cancer, su2c by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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You’ll remember my request for your participation and this blog’s participation in Blog Action Day 2007.

Over 20,000 people participated and it moved the message of the environment forward within the social media sphere and within mainstream media as well. Thanks for helping!

On October 15, 2008, we’ll talk about poverty and more than 20,000 people (I think) will again move the message to the fore.

If you blog, you need to participate by clicking here.

If you just read (and that’s cool too) tell your friends about it.

If you’re willing to promote it on your web site, grab some graphics here.

Here’s why:

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: blog action day, blogs, commentary, community, public service announcement, social media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The tragedy in Myanmar (Burma) from the cyclones continues with this report being secretly produced and now broadcast globally by CNN. Like life itself sometimes, it’s tough to watch so be warned.

And you can still donate to UNICEF here to help families in Myanmar (Burma). Anything you can spare would go a long way for them.

Tags: commentary, public service announcement, UNICEF by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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