Would our legislative priorities be what they are today -- tending always in the direction of serving those with economic leverage first -- were those legislative bodies anywhere near gender equal? Would the "war on women" exist as it does now?

If war breaks out between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, fewer resources will be available to make the necessary investments that will allow the South Sudanese people to lead fruitful, rewarding lives -- above the poverty line and food secure -- in the new Republic of South Sudan.

I should have been prepared for the notion that hunger was prevalent here in the United States, but I wasn't. I was shocked to hear that a First World country had such an ignominious reality prevalent across all 50 states.

When we're hungry, we expect to eat. In fact, we expect to be able to eat whatever we want. Eating when we are hungry -- or, as many of us like to say, when we are "starving" -- is easily taken for granted.

When Britany Lewis was born, no trumpets and glad tidings or even balloons and baby showers greeted her arrival. She was just another poor baby. Brita...

This year's Thanksgiving celebration will take place as millions of children face starvation in the Horn of Africa and in developing nations around the world. And I am wondering if we will be as generous as the Wampanoags.

I was in Ethiopia during the "global food crisis" in 2008, and witnessed a tremendous amount of starvation, pain and suffering. And yet, that crisis was not nearly as severe as what's happening today.

In Kenya's capital city of Nairobi, two-thirds of the population live far below the poverty line in sprawling urban slums. Hunger is an everyday reality here.