Thanksgiving Day; 2010

Feeding the Homeless in a Nation of Fear

Most of you know that I volunteer at one of two shelters over Thanksgiving to help out in feeding the homeless.  This year was different from all the others.

First, the numbers we served were higher.  I confirmed this with the ‘regular’ staff; they made it pretty clear that from last year to this, we’ve seen nearly a 15% increase in homelessness here in River City.

Second, the mood has turned uglier. 

“…I lived with my brother until he lost his house.  Now, we’re camping…”

“…unemployment ran out, and I wound up….”

“…killed himself.  Saw his choice was livin’ in th’ road, or checkin’ himself out…”

Snippets of conversation.  I’m supposed to treat everyone with dignity; the way they try to run things is to pretend it’s a restaurant which serves one kind of meal, and treats everyone as a customer.  Good help is invisible.  Normally, it’s a food-line; done cafeteria-style – over the holidays, we use plates and serve a real dinner.  Serve and collect; serve and collect.  It gives a person like me an opportunity to learn something while busing dishes.

Next table over, someone started yelling in frustration.  Counselors are on duty to deal with this sort of thing, and while it happens every year, these ‘incidents’ flared up about every ten minutes.  The counselors try to separate the frustrated from the rest – get them to talk – offer solutions along with sympathy. 

The suicide rate has spiked.  So have the residents of the shelter from ‘good’ parts of town – people who’ve been caught in the foreclosure mess.  These are people who are used to a certain confidence of action.  They’re not accustomed to being told when they can eat, sleep, or use the shower. 

They’re mad.

They’re the ones who volunteer their story – to anyone who’ll listen.  Nowadays; they have no one to whom they can talk. 

“I lost my job in July of 2009”, stated one man, flatly, as it he were saying, “It’s raining and cold outside today.”   In his case, both were true.  “I lost my house, my wife, my car....”   The look on his face told the rest – he’d also lost his will to live. 

He went on to say that he blamed the government for all of this.  His logic was simple, direct, and largely correct:  “They’re in charge, ain’t they?”  Hunger finally won out over pride – he ate his dinner.

It’s not like Grandma’s.  There are no seconds.  Everyone is issued a ticket when they walk in; they surrender it in exchange for a plate.  No ticket; no food.  No one gets to come by and get ‘seconds’.

There’s no couch.   There’s no football.  There’s no fire – only an overflow tent with more people. 

Lesson:  You have to look for them – but the numbers are there.  The unemployment rate – the one which the government states is ‘official’ – is 9.6%; you can safely double that if you’re looking for the truth.   Homeless?  The government owns-up to 500,000, which has been their stock answer for at least two decades now.  I know the figure is much higher – and the National Council for the Homeless estimates anywhere from two to five million.   Real statistics are hard to come by.  Homeless people don’t talk to authorities – it usually means losing what little they’ve been able to scrounge for a campsite.

As the day wore on, I became uneasily-comfortable with an ugly mood.  I did a little math in my head.

America has anywhere from ten to twenty-five million unemployed.  One in four hundred homes are in some state of foreclosure (we’re on track for over two million by the end of 2010).  Combine that with the loss of America’s razor-thin safety-net, and we’re looking at somewhere north of three million new homeless people by the end of 2011.

Most of those will be like the man, above – used to providing for himself, and looking for someone to blame.

These are figures which presage serious civil unrest.   I felt it, on Thanksgiving Day; a nation out of work, out of options, and out of hope – and fearful of their own future.

Fear is an odd thing.  It’s the best tool of tin-pot governments; the last real weapon of the dictator.  Used properly, it can keep people in line. 

Once that dog slips its leash, it becomes a Cerberus of hate and anger.  

Some additional math.  Five million homeless.  Figure a third will be suffering from PTSD of one form or another; another third will drink the Kool-Aid and ‘believe’ their lot will improve Real Soon Now – that leaves just north of one and a half million people who are fearful and angry at a government which they blame for their plight.

They’ve also now entered the ranks of the true revolutionaries – because they now have nothing to lose.

“Am I the only one who noticed everyone's mood today?”, I asked. 

“Nope.  We were talking about it in the kitchen.   The counselors noticed it too.”   Small wonder – our yearly 'customers' were dealing with frustration born of fear – as well as anger.

Hope?   By now, anyone with half a brain knows that hope is a political slogan, used by the 44th President to get himself elected.  From now on, real ‘hope and change’ are going to involve doing something – and that’s where the math gets ugly, really fast.

You see, people like me are thin on the ground.  We see that there are really two types in the world – those who’ll ‘send good thoughts into the universe’, and those who’ll actually do something.   It’s those of us who do something who create hope and change. 

We’re outnumbered, though. 

At this point, a tidal wave of fear is sweeping the marginalized people of America.   In the end, one final statistic is going to matter: 

There are, give or take, about a million U.S. military personnel stationed within our borders.  Add the half-million police personnel nationwide, and the homeless still outnumber them.

Fear is contagious.  I felt it last week, while finishing up my stint at the kitchen.  For those of us smart enough to do the math, we should all be afraid.

Veteran's Day (Dulce et Decorum Est)....

 

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

--  Wilfred Owen; "Dulce et Decorum Est"

('a poem of the Great War')

I'm sorry that I can't feel great about this Veterans' Day.  You see, my father was a veteran; of a time when America could feel good not only about the causes in which it engaged, but about the actions of its government.   

Today is different.

There are nearly two and a half million veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan since 1991.   Of those, nearly a third suffer from depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), untreated brain injuries and a host of other medical complications stemming from their participation in America's two current wars.

On any given night, over 200,000 of them are homeless.  (I know this statistic personally - I volunteer at a soup-kitchen over Thanksgiving and Christmas.)  Nearly sixty percent of these veterans are persons of color.

Deploying men to combat zones creates casualties here at home - to the effect that homelessness among women and children has spiked dramatically in the past decade - yet another casualty of the ongoing war.

Every single day, five soldiers attempt suicide, along with nearly twenty veterans.  Most will be successful.

Counting the men bombed into the desert at their posts at the beginning of the current Iraq war, plus the deaths of all civilians since, the U.S. has killed over two million Iraqis.

Instead of promoting freedom, we now support regimes which subjugate their own people.

Sleep well tonight, America

You've succeeded in this much - you've ignored the plight of those who serve you, and you've alienated the world.

You've created more enemies than you can kill.

The Speech I Wish Obama Had Made....

(Most of you are aware that President Obama made an official statement right after Tuesday’s election, referring to the thrashing the Dems took as “humbling” – then went on to offer an olive-branch to the Republicans by way of ‘working together’.

The Republicans, on the other hand, sufficiently disabused both Obama and the rest of the country of any notion of bipartisan cooperation – in his victory-speech, John Boehner called the election a ‘repudiation of Washington’ and promised to repeal the health-care bill.

It’s evident that cooperation isn’t on their minds. The choice for Obama and his administration, it would appear, is akin to the one given condemned criminals in Utah back in the day – the choice between being hung, or shot.

Either way, absent a miracle it’s looking more and more like one-and-done for Obama. He did it to himself, by pandering to the special-interests, the military and the mob. The mob has returned the favor by taking a great big bite out of that hand-offered-in-friendship.

These people don’t want friends.

If Obama wants to save anything out of his administration, he’s going to have to take action, now, before the new Congress is seated – apart from that, he’s going to have to settle in for two years of political gridlock while America’s economy follows suit and grinds to a halt.

This action has to be decisive –and it has to make up for two years of lost time. Rather than publicly acknowledge that a can of whup-ass had been opened on his agenda, he should have said something like this:)

_________________________

“My fellow Americans – good evening.

I have let you down.

You voted for change – and in the first thirty days of my administration, I could have done what I’m about to do, but instead the only thing I accomplished of any note was to hold a Super Bowl party and rubber-stamp a lot of the prior administration’s initiatives.

I’m here to tell you that the change for which you voted is here, and will begin tonight.

If I’ve learned anything from this election, it’s this – courage requires the acceptance that loss is inevitable. A soldier on a battlefield, to be effective, has to accept that his death is a likely outcome of his actions. An athlete on the field has to accept that loss is an outcome of competition. A businessperson knows that, when founding a business, only 50% of new companies survive their first five years.

I have accepted, in stark terms, that I will be a one-term president.

My greatest mistake was in believing that I could make a difference by not acting, and by waiting for others to see the light through gentle, intellectual persuasion. I see now that this is not the case.

To those who spent millions of dollars on shadow organizations to purchase the government from the people – to those of you who believe that progressivism is weak – to those of you who despise the America we would create – to those of you who believe that the subjugation of other people is right – to those of you who would send families homeless in the streets while lining your own pockets – and finally, to those of you who are the legions of bitter extremists, clinging to religion and guns – change is coming.

Tonight.

Unlike most of my critics, I studied the Constitution in law school. I see nothing in that document which declares Congress a ‘lame duck’ after an election. To that end, I am instructing the current Majority Leader to draft legislation extending unemployment benefits indefinitely, or until the current unemployment rate is below 5%. A vote will be taken on this measure when Congress is back in session, and before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Further, I am directing her to draft legislation, in concert with the Federal Elections Commission, to create a publicly-funded elections program. This legislation will effectively prohibit the outright purchase of an election such as what we’ve just seen, and will also severely curtail the actions of political-action committees and lobbyists.

To those who will scream that this is a restriction of free speech – again; I’ve read the Constitution, and there’s nothing in it that guarantees a person the right to shout ‘fire!’ in a crowded theatre – or to purchase influence by way of campaign contributions. We have laws against graft and corruption. Once this new bill is law, we will begin to see a government which reflects the true nature of the country – and not the interests of a few.

Lastly, I am directing the Speaker to assist in the preparation of legislation to make permanent the effects of my next actions. The remainder these actions will take the form of executive orders. They are as follows:

1. By executive order, I am closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. All detainees will be transferred to Federal prisons where their cases will be reviewed. Any for whom legitimate cases cannot be brought will be repatriated to their home countries.

2. By executive order, I am issuing a 90-day stand-down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Command authorities in those countries will be given one week to create a plan for an orderly withdrawal of troops. By late winter, 2011, every soldier in both of those countries will be home. In the event this is considered a sign of weakness, please understand – our commitment to the defense of our borders is as high as it has ever been. Any attempt made by any nation, person, or power to interfere with that withdrawal or to otherwise attack our country or its interests will be met with force. We will not, however, continue the dreadful practice of my predecessor in conducting undeclared wars.

3. By executive order, I am repealing the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and other orders issued by my predecessor which either violated Constitutionally-guaranteed civil-liberties or restricted same. A full list of these repealed acts and orders will be made available tomorrow morning.

4. By executive order, I am ending the policy of ‘don’t-ask/don’t-tell’ in the U.S. Military.

5. By executive order, I am ordering a hard-stop on any and all foreclosures of privately-owned homes in the United States and an immediate investigation into the loan-and-foreclosure practices of the nation’s banks. I will not see another family evicted in America until we can sort out the mess caused by Wall Street and the banking system.

Folks, the other day I saw a car – it had three bumper-stickers; one read, “We are creating enemies faster than we can kill them”. The other read, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

The last one read, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Personal philosophies can’t be summed up in bumper-sticker language. Neither can national policies. However, you hired me to be the change you wanted to see, if not in the world, at least here in America.

I can promise you this. From now on, I will be the change which most of you want to see. We will cease creating enemies in the world. We will pay attention to your outrage, and to that of the family of nations. We will begin to repair – permanently – the problems our predecessors have created.

I will take more action over the next two weeks – action involving regulation of the financial markets, the insurance companies, and to begin dealing with the mess that is health care in America.

I owe you that.

Yes, I’m going to be a one-term president. And, that’s fine with me.

To my opponents – bring it on. I can deal with it.

To all of you, I’ll end by quoting one of my favorite T.V. pundits – good night, and good luck.”

The Fool's Parade....

“American Exceptionalism” becomes American Folly

In Medieval France (and other parts of Europe, more sporadically) on or about January 1^st the entire nation took leave of its senses to celebrate the Feast of Fools.  During this celebration, a mock-Pope was elected, and a parade was held through the streets of Paris (and countless other cities and villages) with poor people dressed as kings and the city’s leaders dressed as – well – fools.

Normal rules, mores, and other such restrictions on public behavior were temporarily suspended.  Everyone got to cut loose, and if snow was falling that day, so much the better.

As the Middle-Ages gave way to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment (two things about which you’re likely unfamiliar; those of you who’ll be studying history using Texas textbooks), this practice died out – with notions of the Rights of Man gaining sway over Divine Right, it was no longer necessary to have a yearly safety-valve to relieve societal pressure.

Yesterday, politicians like Rand Paul brayed like jackasses, saying “Today, we take our government back!”  My continuing question – from what, and to what?

From Oregon to Florida, the Tea Party faithful have used this rallying-cry to convince itself that government needed ‘taking back’.  What they’ve really proven, at least to those of us who stayed awake in class and have the sense to connect the dots, is that they’re no more capable of making decisions than they are of spelling their signs correctly. 

I’ve watched them, sitting in their Hoverounds and decrying ‘entitlements’ – bitching about ‘Obamacare’, while drawing Medicare to pay for those scooters – complaining that education is in the hands of the ‘libruls’, and declaring that ‘English is America’s Ofecal Language’.

While I respect the theory of democracy, I’m not required to respect its practice – at least, the way it’s practiced in America today.  Billions of dollars were spent this time around; shoveled by obscenely-wealthy and morally-bankrupt individuals and shadow organizations into the campaigns of candidates who believe that America is still the greatest nation on earth because of its ability to kick the ass of anyone who opposes it and that somehow, we can suspend the rules of nature and life to continue the folly which is the sum of the last sixty years of collective national behavior.

Bill Maher probably said it best recently, when he said that the Democrats have “…..moved to the center-right, and the Republicans have moved into the asylum.”  Other people – people like Michelle Goldberg and Max Blumenthal and Michael Weinstein – have made it factually and abundantly clear:  The Republican Party (and with it, the U.S. military) are now run by a cabal of extremist fundamentalist Christians, virtual fascists and misguided ‘patriots’ who believe to the core of their being that blowing up half the world and planting an American flag on the ruins is a Damn Good Idea – and to hell with anyone who disagrees. 

The people running these organizations are supported by the aforementioned Fool’s Parade of semiliterate power-chair jockeys, nose-pickers and Hooterville-dwelling morons.  They are the mob against which Jefferson warned us. 

This morning, I received a call from a friend, whose consensus was, “Well, it’s not that bad.  I mean, the real crazies – Angle, O’Donnell, Miller – didn’t win.”

I had to remind him that Russ Feingold, the one man who voted against the Patriot Act and who probably should have been accorded a greater role in the Obama administration was voted out summarily in a Tea Party sweep of Wisconsin – and that the Republicans now have the license they need to shut down the government and do the other things which the likes of Bachmann and Boehner have said they’ll do.

I closed by saying, “Ric, when someone tells you what they are; believe them.”

Yes, I’ll cheerfully agree – we won’t be treated to half-baked legislation demanding that masturbation be outlawed.   However, we’ll probably see a demand for the privatization of Social Security; the repeal of the health-care bill, a full-court press on the Supremes to overturn Roe v. Wade, and a lot of other things.

We’ll likely see the police-state get stronger, our civil-liberties weaker, and the notion of taking care of the least of us through this Second Great Depression fade like a fond memory.

The people who were elected yesterday don’t value the America we have today, or the country we need to become – they value a foggy and distant, romanticized past, where ‘root, hog, and die’ were the watchwords; a fantasyland, populated by people who trade chickens for medical care and who are all white, married,(fundamentalist) Christian and straight.

I’m often called an ‘elitist’, or worse, because I decry the behavior of these people –the Americans who can’t spell, can’t think, and who believe sheer force is the best way to solve problems –whether that’s by kicking some raghead-ass in Eye-Rack or stomping the neck of a protester at a Rand Paul rally. 

I’ll counter with this – it’s not ‘elitist’ to tell someone that they’re behaving like a damn fool.  It’s actually a service.  It’s not ‘belittling’ or ‘disrespectful’.  Actually, it’s treating the person like an adult – and expecting them to start behaving like one.

Regardless, we’re past the point of getting anything done over the next two years – the best we can expect is a governmental gridlock, where government grinds to a halt and cuts its collective nose off to spite its face.

The current administration had a two-year opportunity to do some genuinely great things.  With the stroke of a pen, Obama could have ended Don’t-Ask; Don’t-Tell; he could have rolled back the dreadful assaults of the Bush-era against our civil-liberties; he could have brought the troops home from two unnecessary wars (gaining an economic peace-dividend along the way) – but the only thing he managed to accomplish in his first thirty days in office was to host a Super-Bowl party.

Obama had his chance, and from all appearances, his time has come and gone.  Ironically, we might see some form of ‘recovery’, as Wall Street brings at least some of its money back from offshore, now that they’ve got a friendly Congress.  However, barring a miracle we’re not likely to see the kind of recovery  we need – that’ll require creating over thirty million jobs; something which every economist worthy of the title has agreed will simply not happen; not now, and not for years to come.

No, I’m afraid we’re going to have to get used to phrases like ‘governmental shutdown’, and ‘jobless recovery’, with words like ‘austerity’, ‘entitlement’, ‘security’ and other suchlike thrown in for good measure.

Yesterday was an ugly day.  Tomorrow doesn’t look much better.

The Fool’s Parade is about to begin, folks.