On Wednesday, just two days ago, thousands of residents of south side Atlanta, Georgia (estimates released on Friday put the number as high as 30,000) stampeded around local housing authority officials set up in the parking lot of an East Point shopping mall. It was a crowd of people in need of affordable shelter, all hoping to GET ON A WAITING LIST for government subsidized, Section 8 housing. Officials passed out 13,000 applications.
Complete video coverage of the event can be seen in the top clip to the right of this article, and the images are shocking. They are shocking because they depict the reality of life in America as it is for millions of Americans today—a life of want and deprivation, need and desperation, right here in the “Land of Plenty.” The images are ugly, and it’s hard to realize that the scene is in the United States, not Nigeria or Nicaragua.
It’s important to keep in mind that there was no Section 8 housing available in the City of East Point last Wednesday. There was not a single available unit into which a single desperate family might move. What’s more, there wasn’t a single available housing voucher that officials could issue to anyone. There still aren’t, and there aren’t likely to be any in the foreseeable future.
No, the throng of desperate souls in the video braved the boiling heat and sacrificed their dignity to a system that hates them, a nation too focused on “me” and “mine” to care about their suffering, and a political climate in which victims are routinely blamed for the crimes, all for absolutely nothing. Nothing is an all too familiar wage to America’s poor.
It was a crowd of people holding on to the barest shred of hope—hope that they might get on a waiting list so that SOMEDAY they might have a chance at actually having a place to call home. Remember, the scene is a major city inside the United States of America. Not Nigeria or Nicaragua, but the United States. The people you see in the video are Americans.
Now, take a look at the second video clip. The scene is a sports arena in Los Angeles, California. It’s a scene that repeats itself over and over again across the United States as teams of volunteers from Remote Area Medical (RAM) and the Association of Free Clinics stage weekend and week long free clinics to provide basic medical, dental and vision services to Americans denied access to health care because they are poor and uninsured. God bless the medical, dental and support volunteers who make these clinics possible!
Originally organized to provide urgently needed medical care in remote areas of the world, 64% of the RAM’s resources are now devoted to providing basic medical care to Americans—working Americans, Americans who have lost their jobs and benefits in the current recession and the disabled who are shut out of our health care system because they cannot pay. The hapless patients are the same people who filled auditoriums, sports arena and county fairgrounds last year and the year before that while the national debate about health care reform raged. They are the same people who emerged from that debate with exactly what they had before it began—nothing.
Meanwhile, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has now broken through the TRILLION DOLLAR barrier. Can you really appreciate how much money that is? A thousand billion dollars. Written out in numerals it looks like this: $1,000,000,000,000.
We can afford more than a TRILLION DOLLARS to accomplish, essentially, nothing in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we can’t afford a mammogram that might save the life of a struggling mother of three. We can shoot off hellfire missiles like Roman candles at $80,000 a pop, firing mainly at camels and goatherds, but we can’t afford $120 in blood tests to see if Dad’s kidneys are leaking protein. We can drop bundles of cash like Chicklets® on corrupt Afghani warlords, but we can’t manage five cents to fund a free clinic for the rural poor. Housing? You can forget that too.
I used to think differently. I used to be a believer. There was a time when I sang the happy “ain’t we grand” songs and believed that the United States was the best country in the world. But now, what am I to think? I see indisputable images that cause our country to appear indistinguishable from many of the worst countries in the world. Third world countries.
Then, I am reminded of the annual report of the World Health Organization which ranks the American health care system a dismal 37th among developed nations. That’s 36 positions below Number 1.
I read about millions of homes in foreclosure, and I watch as a callous cadre of Republican senators deprive millions of hard working Americans of unemployment benefits while they, themselves, trot off on vacation. And, I experience all of this against the backdrop of a thousand American soldiers killed for absolutely no justifiable reason in a war fought by the children of the “have nots” for the unjust enrichment of the “haves.”
We can slap plastic flag decals all over our cars, wave our mini American flags and recite the Pledge of Allegiance until we all turn blue, but we can no longer hide our poor. They are too many. They are everywhere. They offer a shabby testimony to the “American way.”
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
MaryAnn, what do you think OUR ROLE is supposed to be in these desperate times? How do we shed light in a way that makes a difference to people in such hopeless circumstances as these people find themselves?
You know, it sort of opened my eyes to watch this video clip. Although my husband and I have found ourselves in later years to be among the lower income bracket ourselves, with no insurance and nothing to fall back on if anything were to happen, we do still have a home, vehicles to drive, food on the table, and clothing. I simply did not realize the magnitude of people’s desperation — in our country — in our own back yards. It’s sickening….
Cindy, yours is the million dollar question! Fighting for social justice—just like spreading the Gospel—is a frustrating and uphill battle where losses and setbacks are more common than victories. “Me” and “mine” are powerful motivators for most of humanity. It is difficult to overcome those interests.
I think our role is supposed to be (1) advocating relentlessly for social justice and meaningful change at all levels of government, (2) confronting injustice when we see it, (3) working together with other people of faith to make the social gospel a living reality in our communities, (4) contributing our time and such resources as we may have to alleviate the want and deprivation outside our own doors, and (5) continuing in faith and prayer.
Though most Christians feel as though we have very limited influence as individuals, the area of our greatest personal influence is likely within our own churches. I think our individual congregations are likely the best starting points for educating and mobilizing people for effective activism.
Prentice, you have nailed in on the head. As individuals many of us have little financial or social influence. However if we are to show proper the “United” States of America and to work for “liberty and justice for all” we must band together. As I see it my responsibility remains to only associate myself with those congregaations, clubs, organizations
political parties, and yes even family members, that share my value of social justice.