Just a word of warning before I start. This is not an upbeat entry.
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I watched this last night with a mixture of horror, sadness, and impotent rage.
One of my favorite books and movies is The Grapes of Wrath, but it is a bleak story. It stuns me that arguably the most prosperous nation in the world has come, once again, to this point. Shanty towns and Hoovervilles are back.
After this news story aired, I told Ken that I'm afraid this will be what President Bush is remembered for. He said that we can't lay all of this at the feet of Bush, and that this began a while back. I know that's true, but 6 years of waging war without a tax increase exacerbated the problem to where we've now reached this horrible state of tent cities springing up across our country.
I'm so angry that this is happening. I'm angry at the people who gave their greed free rein, and took advantage of the housing market. I'm angry at President Bush for not forcing the rest of us to make sacrifices, and putting the burden solely on our military and their families. I'm angry at those Wall Street and banking bastards who milked the system for all they could, milked it till it was dry. I'm angry at credit card companies who hand out credit cards like they're freakin' Halloween candy to college students . I'm angry at the mortgage companies who made loans to people who should never have gotten them. And I'm angry at all of us for making such incredibly stupid decisions about finances and credit.
I don't doubt that even the people living in these 21st century Hoovervilles bear some culpability in this. Perhaps they made bad financial decisions along the way. But I'm also reasonably certain that there are plenty of people who, through no fault of their own, are forced into this position. It's a domino effect, starting at the top, and finding its way down to the construction worker, the person working for an automaker, sales people, restaurateurs, and on and on and on.
You all know that I try to remain an optimist, and I still believe that we will get out of this. When is another question. In the meantime, this is what is happening to some of our citizens. And we haven't even begun to claw our way out of this mess yet. I think we'll hear more about tent cities and see more images of those who have become homeless. I expect that I'll feel this sense of outrage every time I do.
