The Men Who Stole the World @62foryou-blog - Tumblr Blog

One of the most heartbreaking moments in Matthew Desmond’s “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City”— and there’s a shameful assortment to choose from — is when 13-year-old Ruby Hinkston takes refuge in the public library. She’s come to use the computer. It turns out that she’s been slowly building her dream house with a free online game, and she wants to visit it again.

“It had clean, light-reflecting floors,” Mr. Desmond writes, “a bed with sheets and pillowcases, and a desk for doing schoolwork.”

This cheerful vision in pixels forms an almost unbearable contrast to the filth of Ruby’s own apartment. The kitchen sink is stopped up, as is the bathtub and toilet. There are mattresses everywhere, their exposed innards revealing humming burrows of cockroaches — and the mattresses may be the least terrifying of their redoubts. They also fill the kitchen drawers and erupt from the nonworking drains.

Living in extreme poverty in the United States means waging an almost gladiatorial battle for creature comforts that luckier people take for granted. And of all those comforts, perhaps the most important is a stable, dignified home. Yet as a culture, notes Mr. Desmond, we have somehow failed to commit ourselves to providing this most fundamental and obvious necessity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/books/evicted-book-review-matthew-desmond.html

#evicted book #matthew desmond #62foryou #democracy spring #getmoneyout #homeless #the 1%

#frederick douglass #getmoneyout #democracy spring

#getmoneyout #democracy spring #billionaire #millionaire

#62foryou #democracy spring #edmund burke

0llzes-blog

The Largest Sit-In To Save Democracy in American History.

I’ll be bringing graph paper and pens for the way. It’s about 14 miles per day essentially. Likely chocolate will be in my arsenal too. Join me to save our democracy.

“No. Democracy Spring is not affiliated with any political candidate or party. Further, while progressive leaders and organizations are initiating it, it is not a progressive or a conservative action but rather an American action. We urge all who agree with our demand, will adhere to nonviolence, and will embrace others from all walks of life in a spirit of inclusion to participate. We will stand together – progressive, conservative, Republican, Democrat, independent, libertarian – as leaders and citizens who want a government accountable to voters rather than big money interests. We may disagree on many things as Americans of different political perspectives, but we believe that it’s time for all who love our country to defend the republic that binds us as a free people.“

I don’t care what you look like, who you are, who you’re voting for, this is something we all need to do together.

If you’re curious I’m still voting for Lessig.

#democracy spring

fugsfw

Remember the fun Satanic Temple that fought to put a statue of Baphomet on the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol and held a “pink mass” at the grave of the mother of Wesboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps to turn her “gay in the afterlife”?

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

The Men Who Stole the World