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This afternoon my 8-year old boy put his hand through a window. He was lucky as heck - only some minor cuts, but it worried ny wife enough that she took him to the local emergency room in Boston.
After I got home from work, I joined them at the hospital. By this point wife and son were in an exam room. Here's what was going on in the other side of the room, from which we were separated by a curtain:
There was a mother and her baby. The baby was ill - apparently very ill. The staff were telling the mother that the baby needed to go to Children's Hospital ASAP. The mother didn't want to do that, because she'd lose her place at the homeless shelter. The poor woman had to choose - her baby or a warm place to sleep. She didn't want to sleep on the street tonight. The doc wouldn't let her leave unless it was to go to Children's Hospital - he was going to call Social Services if necessary. (There was no question of whether they'd get medical care - as far as I can see, hospitals here treat first then ask questions later.)
I suppose that when one is looking at sleeping on the street, it's easy to wonder if the doctor isn't being a little alarmist. I get get out of joint when my toilet's clogged and I have to wait for a plumber: I cannot fathom living a life on the street, and having to make awful decisions about having a bed or saving my baby.
What happened to my country? How did we get to this?
The standoff went on for the best part of an hour before the hospital staff finally convinced the poor woman that she could come back there to sleep tonight if she needed to - they'd give her a place to sleep in the hospital. Since eastern Massachusetts hospitals tend to be staffed with good, good people, I expect that they were telling her the truth.
I'm sure that we all feel awful for the plight of this woman and her child. But what to do to change it?
Over the past 20 years, the plight of the homeless has only gotten worse. The Poor have gotten poorer, and the Rich have gotten richer. I'm tired, so tired, of politicians who've claimed before election time that they're all for change, but immediately upon winning office rush to suckle at the teat of the Predator Class.
The Clintons had their chance. They blew it. We lost Congress to the Republicans as soon as the Clintons had control, and didn't get Congress back until Dr. Dean finally took the DNC reigns from away from them. The Rich became fantastically rich, while the middle class and "working poor" (a term that I think was invented during the Clinton era) saw their jobs sent to other countries through "free trade" and "most favored nation" treaties - all in exchange for cash contributions. At this point, the Clintons have sucked hundreds of millions from the collective teats of the Predator Class - and, like mobsters practicing Omerta on the witness stand, they steadfastly refuse to release the names of those who gave them the cash.
We need change. We need change. And change only comes through change. Change does not come from more of the same.
I'm not convinced that Obama will be a great president, but he might be. Obama is honest (as far as I can tell), and he seems to only promise that which is reasonably do-able given political and other realities. Instead of delighting in the politics of personal destruction, Obama seems to genuinely want to pull us all together - America's strength has always come from our pulling together as a team, even when we don't agree on all things. When Clinton was on the board of Wal-Mart keeping silent as Sam and company battled any flicker of union activity, Obama was organizing in the streets of Chicago.
The sad scene I witnessed tonight has served to renew my commitment to change. If we don't change, I fear that we will soon perish. If we do change, we have a chance to take back America for The People. I hope that we give it a chance. It may be our last chance.
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