I have some thoughts tonight on housing. Shelter. Something all human beings need. These are somewhat random thoughts right now but perhaps they will gel over time.
Tonight I watched police of Washington DC take Occupiers off the roof of a makeshift building they erected at their site. It was meant to be a shelter from the cold, for both Occupiers and the homeless milling about in DC. I watched, mesmerized, for over an hour, while police came in, went up in a cherry-picker, and literally “picked” students off the roof of this thing. The last one refused to budge and held a steel-like grip until police literally pried him off, one limb at a time, and he finally, finally relented.
The fascinating story in my mind that began to take shape is the SYMBOLIC MEANING of HOUSING or shelter that was being created, by the actions of these young adults in our nation’s capital. I find myself with very mixed feelings about the whole occupy movement. I sympathize greatly with their cause. Greed is rampant in America, and those 1% do have an ungodly and immense amout of wealth unlike any other industrialized nation on earth. In fact, most of the rest of the largely industrialized nations have taken great steps to lessen their wealth and wage gap. Not in America. Mostly because we have this thing about individual RIGHTS and freedoms that we see as, the freedom to make all the money you can, in almost any way you can, and you don’t owe anybody else a DIME. Which I think is wrong. We do owe others a dime. We owe EVERYONE, in fact, food, clean water, and shelter. Not that everyone has to have the exact same quality or amount, but a heckuva lot closer in value than we have now. Or at least the opportunity to EARN it, which doesn’t exist right now. JOBS are gone and no one in the 1% gives a HOOT about that. People’s lives are melting away before them, and those at the top continue in their exploitation and taking jobs overseas, because it’s ALL about the money, it’s all about profit alone.
In any case, the police took them off the roof, and I turned it off at that point (when I saw that they didn’t tase or mase anybody to get them off), so I assume they then dismantled the house on the Occupy grounds. I don’t really have a problem with that. And I applaud the officers in tonight’s case, who showed great restraint, even after this kid peed all over them as they stood below him towards the end. They did not act or look angry in the footage. You didn’t see it on CNN by the way, because they refused to cover it, even though I watched for nealry 2 full HOURS on someone’s own webcam and independently broadcast production! We know who’s bought out. It’s become so totally blatantly obvious in the past few weeks, I don’t even want to watch them anymore.
The symbolism of the shelter erected at the site was 1) to house our homeless population, which in America is shameful. And 2) to show solidarity and sympathy with the 1 out of 10 Americans whose homes went into foreclosure in this crisis.
People losing their HOMES is a powerful image! It is a powerful reality in today’s society. With the loss of income of my husband, we even stand one toothpick away from that, and the reason it would never happen that we would be on the street or in a shelter is that we have supportive family. What if we didn’t? What if we were totally reliant on only ourselves. We could be on the street with a PhD. That is the world we live in. And that is powerful. It is very powerful greed operating our world today.
I have enough family that I am not close to, that I can imagine this happening to people. My family is splintered, my mother, father and older brother already gone from this world, and I have 9 first cousins, none of whom ever talks to me or writes. We don’t know what’s going on in each other’s lives. Most of them also splintered years ago, and there are no family get-togethers. Those who we were closest to in my childhood completely shut me out. So, yes, I can see people ending up homeless from a foreclosure. Some families are not that close, through no fault of the kids.
How much of the world is without shelter tonight? If 2/3 of the world’s population exists on $2.00/day or less, what do you think? We live in a world out of balance, where children go hungry, earthquakes devastate already-poverty-striken places, and a year or more later, large populations are still living in tent cities, and we sit and watch our TV and eat our food at night and never think of them. What do they think of us?
Food – Clean water – Shelter from the cold, and the rain, and life’s outside problems, every child deserves. Even those homeless in America. Shame on our banks and our system that takes back homes they offered and adveretised and SOLD to people who now cannot afford their payments. SHAME on our politicians who let weeks and weeks and weeks go by and do nothing to create jobs for those in their own country ready and willing to work! Shame on the South Carolina state govt. for priding itself on how many unemployment applications it TURNS DOWN every week. Shame on us all.
Doctor Grandma 
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