Dec. 26, 2001 - 15:04 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Descent

Right after Thanksgiving, for a few days this year we were enchanted by the Christmas Spirit of old. Most of us were able to give the kiddies a good Christmas and maybe a present or two for the adults. Most basked in the glow of family togetherness as did we.

Today though we woke up to the realization that the world with its problems is still with us, if anything, worse yet than a few days ago. Our legislative bodies are busy throwing dollars at almost non-existent problems, building more jails to house people busted for no more than the victimless crime of addiction. There are people serving time on the taxpayers dollar who were not caught dealing in drugs but unfortunately for them are in for a long time for just possession of a little bit of marijuana. The more law enforcement we muster and the more jails we build the worse the situation gets. Apparently we are not even close to solving that problem which has been with man since recorded history was first written down. In the days of the old West here a man was entitled to name his own poison and die from the effects without help from any agency. Sounds cruel, but was it?

Surveys show that only in 6 of the nation's largest 60 cities is the average janitor able to earn enough to afford a one bedroom apartment and pay for life's other necessities. A retail sales person can make ends meet in half that many locations, both groups can forget about buying affordable homes. For instance in Denver the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $499.00 a month and the hourly wage to afford an apartment was $9.60 an hour. The median wage for a janitor was $8.08 an hour and the median wage for a retail sales person was $8.26 an hour. That is what is required to be able to live in a one bedroom apartment, solo.There have been a number of surveys made arriving at the same conclusion. "Families live one unexpected medical bill, one car repair, one bout of unemployment away from homelessness."

So what is happening here ? On old Lowry Air Field which was given back to its donor, the City of Denver, the published plans were to provide housing for the spread of families from lower income people to the well to do. As near as I can see the only low income housing is in a small area just west of the field that was for married housing for the military. The rest of the area is being built up with huge houses and condos for high income families, none for low income families. Promises, promises lol. Developers are going for the big buck it seems to me and looks to me the latest buyers are doing the NIMBY bit. So where are the newly dispossessed to go? Heather and I have been near enough to that state several times back a few years ago and may reach that state again where we have to choose to buy medicine or groceries and a bit of gasoline, but not all of the three.

Medicare is being choked off to the point that various institutions are not taking care of any more Medicare people. But our tax dollars are being devoted to making our law enforcement arms larger and larger and more tax dollars are being spent to house prisoners who only had a little marijuana in their possession - not dealers, just users. I remember prohibition of alcohol when I was young. The laws didn't accomplish a damn thing except found the fortunes of some of our distillers. Most every household had some bootleg booze, home brew or home made wine to pass out to visitors. Great grief, I don't believe it would have been possible to build enough prisons to house all the offenders of the, what was it? Volstead? Act - whatever it was called. I don't think that we have learned very much from actual experience.

So, okay now, we get more enforcers, more jails more paper shufflers to support that, cut back on Medicare, build the multi-hundred thousand dollar mansions on open ground, but not make some provision for the working poor?

Jeepers Heather and I will be among those homeless people if our HMO gets its throat cut, our prescriptions go sky high (which they are for those not in an HMO), our rent makes its usual rise and our fixed income is not fixed enough so that we can pay the tab. Good golly it looks to me as if our legislators are screaming the economy bit to cut off the expenditure of tax money where it is needed to be able to spend more on all kinds of usless and impossible dingbatry.

So, on the twenty-sixth of December 2001 I must leave the Cloud 9 of Christmas, pray for better times and make into reality a precipitous Descent . . . . . . .

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