More to the point we have far too many - weak - self serving people in leadership positions...Some people were elected, some appointed, some hired. But the vast majority collect [not earning] high salaries with cushy benefits and better pensions than you and I were offered.
So--my-fellow-travelers, lets quit leaving 'our-authority' in the hands of others with no supervision.
I read somewhere years ago; "We have stupid government because we have stupid voters." More accurately folks we have sloppy, mismanaged, corrupted - local, state and federal policies because 'we' are apathetic voters.
The really good news is 'we' can change that - we truly can - but to have change we/voters need to avoid being distracted by the "bright-shiny-beads" of empty political promises and poorly thought out state and federal programs. The vast majority of public programs [eg. "No Child Left Behind" or "The War On Poverty" or "The War on Drugs"] offered slick slogans, but mostly work for friends and relatives of those in public office. Most social programs were never intended to ever create an opportunity for the hungry or the homeless to feed themselves or support their own mailing address. If they had then 'budget funding' to already existing state and federal areas like K-12 Public School Education and Public Housing and Social Services would have been increased not reduced.
POVERTY is either a motivator or an excuse. Growing up marginalized financially or socially offers only those two options to our human condition. And, we have seen via history and current events time and time again role models who emerged from all races, religions [male and female] who thrive and prosper regardless of their childhood wealth - or lack.
HUNGER in this country, in this century, is the shame of every person who accepts a taxpayer publicly funded salary. The cute catch phrase from our politicians is Food-Insecurity. In 2019 an estimated 34 million people went hungry on any given day in America. By the end of 2020 that had jumped to an estimated 50 million, of that 17 million of were children - this country's future!
Over the last three decades Food Banks have become a growth industry all on their own - how did that happen? It began to happen because we felt the need to protect our oil interests in Kwait [Operation Desert Storm] and invaded Iraq in 1990.
By the 1993, DC leadership in a desperate attempt to rein in control over an ever increasingly well educated, financially independent middle-class began to systematically dismantle that momentum forward. While our social services and primary public school budgets were slashed and school course curriculum was watered down - books and tuition costs at colleges and universities began to jump - every year. The salaries and benefits of trained and well educated office and service employees stagnated for decades at the same time that corporate CEOs and board members saw triple increases in their salaries and compensation.
By 2000 people who had become accustomed to a lifestyle that was no longer supported by income that kept up with inflation - began a cycle of using credit cards for non durable purchases like restaurants and vacations and increasing more debt to 'pay' for degrees that in the 1980s had been supportable by working summers and part time.
In 2003 America again invaded Iraq. For some in a Federally Elected Office there's nothing like a good old fashioned war to keep the general public in fear while simultaneously making it look like you're doing-something [eg. Creating another department that needed more employees - ta-da - Homeland Security]
Which brings me to America's homeless...Our homeless...
HOMELESSNESS in this country in this century is the shame of every White House administration and every Cabinet Housing Secretary in those administrations. On any given night while most of us sleep on a clean bed under a solid roof an estimated 600,000 of our fellow citizens do not.
And our homeless is comprised of people from both genders and all races. Of that number, 34% are families that includes 200,000 children. Continuing this disgrace is our VETERANS who should not under any circumstances, ever be homeless due to our social neglect. At whose feet do I lay the responsibility of failed follow up? To - each and every person who holds public office. Nearly 50% of the entire veteran homeless population served in Vietnam. Another 41% of the homeless veteran population is between the ages of 31 and 50, which are prime productive years that good people [who risked their lives for the rest of us] are losing.
Wasteful spending in areas that were not socially productive have brought us to this point. [Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.] We-the-people have been far too trusting and well - busy keeping our own lives going.
Artificial distractions with increasing techno convenience for the vast majority of Americans has shifted our focus to a one dimension mentality from enjoying 'enough' to seeking 'more'. Houses and vehicles cost-more because they both have expensive [additional] accessories that we truly don't need in order to drive from home to work or live in a house comfortably. [Case in point: a laminate counter top is $50 to $80 per foot, but granite or marble is $440 to $590 per foot. How about linoleum floors instead of hardwood? And those are only two examples of how the price of a house could be reduced s-i-g-n-i-f-i-c-a-n-t-l-y.
We keep chasing more - but as with an addict 'more' is never enough. 'We' chase the latest fashion like torn bluejeans, the best moisturizer, the biggest truck, new stainless steel appliances and granite counters, the next big tech update...What this consumer addiction has done has blocked our view to truly look around then 'see' what has happened since the Vietnam War. Actually more to the point - what has 'not' happened in the last five decades. [During which time most of our elected dinosaurs in DC have been at the helm.]
Crime increases with hunger and homelessness because people with nothing have nothing to lose.
If you live in a state [like California where Venice Beach has become a plague of crime and homelessness] where your hunger and homeless statistics have risen - with Covid as the political excuse - your state's capitol is likely easier to reach than DC so make your concern known. Make sure your 'elected' representatives know their jobs are MORE transitory than the homeless and the hungry they ignore. And they are ignoring them, because if they weren't - America wouldn't have hungry or homeless citizens...
https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195
Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist...
Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com
*Suspense-Thriller: "24 Sussex Drive"
*Mystery Suspense: "Come Sit In My Kitchen"
