Drinking a cup of coffee this afternoon, fighting off unprecedented, increasing allergy assaults this spring (I live in a wonderfully flowering parkland with a yard in full bloom), I leisurely read this Sunday’s headlines: Joining Washington’s one percenters takes more than the U.S. average .  According to writers Gowen, Morello, and Mellnik, a household income must be far above the national average of $387,000, to be in the area’s top 1 percent. The gateway for the region is $527,000. And the numbers in this category are increasing.  Frankly, this may well be considered a good thing.  Certainly, this is a sign that the economy is not absolutely flat, and that there is an expanding opportunity for charitable contributions in the region. But where are the headlines about the other one percent, the bottom, which includes those nearly 500 homeless District children who live in an aging hospital turned emergency shelter, in the midst of this affluence? How many of the affluent have ever met a child who lives in the large emergency family shelter located at the former D.C. General Hospital? These numbers are increasing, too. These children are housed with their indigent parents in eyesight of the city morgue and jail. Death and incarceration. Disparities and dispair. No place for growing children. Yet these formidable facilities are much more appealing than the family shelter itself. I think it is simply wrong for us to allow such subliminal messaging to poor children. This breeds hopelessness, disconnect, anger, and a culture of poverty. If you are interested in joining with others to make a difference, let me know.