marjorie says...
What kind of Happy should I give m-pyre readers today?
Happy Columbus Day? no…somehow I don’t think that will work.
Happy Genocide Day?
Happy Slavery Day?
Sorry to rain on the parade, but the holiday itself is so ridiculous that it has to be said. This holiday epitomizes the type of celebration we see in history, where conquering nations celebrate their subjugation of other people. If anyone hadn’t noticed…in the modern era we don’t do those things anymore…it’s pretty well established on the international stage that people have the right to govern themselves. So why do we celebrate a man who symbolizes the beginning of a massive rape, enslavement, pillage and destroy campaign against the native people of the Americas? That’s what it was of course. It was not the discovery of a “new world” without any people already living in it.
Ok, I overstated myself…we *do* do those things today…we just do them differently. So in some ways our celebration of Columbus is just being honest…
(Speaking of the “New World”…did any of you see that movie that just came out? They should have just called it “Pocohontas”…that’s what it was about. It was sheer Hollywood drivel too…completely romanticized mythology about Pocohontas and her two English lovers, who were of course…Very Good Men. bleck!)
Now that we’ve covered that, let’s think for a sec about the current world we live in…the outcome of that very first European arrival...
Here we have a news article chronicling the increase of homelessness among seniors in this country. Between 1990 and 2003, the homeless population above the age of 50 increased from 11% to 30%. That’s a huge leap. This article describes the health problems that seniors on the street experience…for instance, it's ridiculous to expect a person with diabetes to be able to follow a proper diet when living on the street.
Upon describing the increase, this gem of an observation is made: “That has implications for governments, which may find housing the chronically homeless is cheaper than treating the health problems exacerbated by aging on the streets.”
It never fails I’ve found…when discussing social problems, the author invariably resorts to a cost-benefit analysis early on as a way to persuade the reader that we must increase public expenditures for poor people. Of course it’s true. But I always come away thinking that the Moral Issue should have top billing…
The article does go on and quote medical professionals from a moral standpoint. For one, an internist, Margot Kushel, at a San Francisco hospital says this: “"It's heartbreaking, not to mention immoral, to discharge a debilitated 60-year-old with heart failure to the street, knowing they would be exposed to all the elements. We can perfect our medical treatments as much as we can, but it's not addressing the problem."
No Margot, it isn’t addressing the problem. But in the capitalist world we live in don’t expect the problem to be solved until the public at large realizes that it costs less to provide a roof over the heads of everyone.
And what does that say about us? Well, I think it means we're well trained. I don’t think this capitalist mentality is part and parcel of “human nature”…I think its learned, from constant rote repetition…so much so that we don’t even think about it...
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