September 17 - The Wrangling Underway at the U.N. Security Council; It's Easy to Get Guns but Not Mental Health Care; Poverty in America and The Republican House

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an examination of the diplomatic track towards disarming Syria of its chemical weapons underway at the United Nations Security Council. Ambassador Peter Galbraith who was America’s top diplomat at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan who negotiated the end of the war in Croatia and served with the U.N. in East Timor joins us to discuss the wrangling between Russia, who is opposed to Chapter Seven, and most of the permanent five plus the U.N. Secretary General who want to have the stick while offering the carrot.

Part 2

Then, following the latest gun massacre that followed a weekend in America in which 57 people were shot, we look into how difficult it is to get mental health care while it is increasingly easy to get guns. Carolyn Reinach Wolf, a partner in a law firm where she is the Director of the firm’s Mental Health Law practice, joins us to discuss the legal issues involved in protecting the rights of the mentally ill and how they can be balanced against the need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, given that the well-armed shooters behind the massacres at the Navy Yard, Virginia Tech, Aurora and Sandy Hook, all had mental health issues.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the latest U.S. Census Bureau report on poverty in America with Stephen Pimpare, the author of “A People’s History of Poverty in America” who is a professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. We discuss how unlike most advanced democracies who are funding programs to end poverty, the United States House of Representatives has cut funds and is planning on cutting more to further impoverish and deny food to the 22% of the nation’s children who go to bed hungry and the 15% of the population who live in poverty.