New way forward

Last week when accepting the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank declared that, "Peace is inextricably linked to poverty. Poverty is a threat to peace."

According to recent Justice Department figures with over 7 million people imprisoned, on probation or on parole, the U.S. has the world's highest incarceration rates (1 in 32 adults). The 2005 U.S. Census reported that 37 million people in this country live in poverty.

Also last week, Wall Street giant Goldman Saches announced $16.5 billion in year-end employee bonuses, including several individual bonuses of $100 million each. Unfortunately, voting for the Naughty or Nice Awards is closed.