Homeless and Structural Violence - 1143 Words

The homeless and addicts have been stratified to the bottom of the social ladder. They are thought to be deviants therefore as a society we are taught to ignore and despise them and disregard their needs. Bourgeois and Schonberg’s 10-year study, Righteous Dopefiend, follows the lives of heroin addicted homeless folk living on Edgewater Boulevard. The Edgewater homeless recognize that those with economic capital have a responsibility in caring for their needs thus they embrace their worthiness in society. As a result of this they label themselves as â€Å"righteous dopefiends† (2009, p. 5). Bourgeois and Schonberg show how structural violence has affected the Edgewater homeless, such as self-blame, lack of access to quality medical care and what†¦show more content†¦Symbolic violence cultivates ideologies of self-blaming. The Edgewater homeless should not be held fully responsible for being homeless and addicted. Throughout the study the participants would enter rehab, detox and some even underwent methadone treatment. After treatment many relapsed and blamed themselves for not having stronger determination as they felt that they were not persistent enough (Bourgeois Schonberg, 2009, p. 285). Thus, symbolic violence of self-blame is very real in the lives of the homeless because they are deceived into thinking that they are weak. Furthermore, society takes part in victim-blaming, as they are perceived into thinking that they are fully responsible for not overcoming addiction or get themselves into proper housing. Instead of having these views the discourse should really be about trying to find appropriate solutions and really zone in on looking at the bigger problem that is continuing the cycle of structural violence (Bourgeois Schonberg, 2009, p. 318). It is important to understand the structural violence that takes place against individuals with less access to wealth, power and access to resources. In this ethnography, Bourgeois and Schonberg expose the cycle of addiction in which the Edgewater homeless fall victims of. The cycle of addiction is perpetuated by not giving homeless addicts proper access to resources, as many of men interviewed expressed desire to give upShow MoreRelatedA Critical Analysis Of Bourgois And Schonberg1720 Words   |  7 PagesBourgois and Schonberg make no attempt in Righteous Dopefiend to euphemize or otherwise lessen the shocking blow of reading the stories of homeless heroin injectors in San Francisco. Their ethnography plunges directly into an environment where property crime, interpersonal violence, and sexual abuse are normalized to such an extent that cultural relativism may be difficult for a privileged reader to apply. To explain these violent and abusive â€Å"subjectivities,† or const ructions of individual subjectsRead MoreHow For A Homeless People813 Words   |  4 PagesHow to rescue homeless people. Soo UCPP Michelle king 10/ 27/ 2015 While Canadians are walking, wherever they go, homeless people have frequently been seen. Why they had started living on the street does not matter to people who pass by them, plenty of people just regard them losers in confined to the margins of society. However they are often born into lower socioeconomic status, but also it is a one of the most serious problems across Canada. The literal meaning of homelessness categorizes chronicallyRead MoreHomelessness Is A Prevalent And Progressive Issue Within Australia Essay1445 Words   |  6 PagesHealth Assignment Homelessness is a prevalent and progressive issue within Australia that is particularly susceptible to women and children. The homeless are a hidden minority of people with limited access to government and agency resources. The experiences of homelessness often results in the loss of basic determinants of health such as a substantial home, food or education. The National Health Care facility defines homelessness as more than just ‘sleeping rough’. Contrary to popular belief, homelessnessRead MoreA Survey On Homelessness And Poverty1404 Words   |  6 Pagesdomestic violence, classified as a traumatic life event, to be the primary cause of homeless (Philipps). The cities that were surveyed include Cedar Rapids, Chicago, Los Angeles, Burlington, Nashville, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Trenton, Seattle, and Nashville. In addition, a survey carried out in 2003 about the homeless mothers across the country found out that one quarter had been abused physically in th e past year and nearly all had witnessed or experienced domestic violence over theirRead MoreThe Outcasts Of Society, The Lazy And Incompetent, Or The Victims Of Extreme Misfortunes?1607 Words   |  7 Pagesdomestic violence, classified as a traumatic life event, to be the primary cause of homeless (Philipps). The cities that were surveyed include Cedar Rapids, Chicago, Los Angeles, Burlington, Nashville, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Trenton, Seattle, and Nashville. In addition, a survey carried out in 2003 about the homeless mothers across the country found out that one quarter had been abused physically in the past year and nearly all had witnessed or experienced domestic violence over theirRead MoreHomelessness Is The Common Reason Of Homelessness Essay1449 Words   |  6 Pagesone can face, People who live at poverty level and have mental disorders are more likely to become homeless. its something that effects people of all age, race, background, and religion. There are several untrue stereotypes about homeless people which is that they are lazy and do not work and commit more violent crimes than housed people. There are many problems that force people to become homeless, Homelessness is more than being a poor and without home, is a separation from society which includesRead MoreThe Serious Issues of Poverty and Homelessness in the US1313 Words   |  5 PagesReserve, programs to aid the poor and homeless have been very inadequate, and are even being cut back on the local, state and federal levels. Poverty and homelessness are caused by racism, lack of education, alcohol, drug abuse, and individuals who have been born into poverty and are not able to afford the means to get ahead, such as going to college. Homelessness is defined as the lack of a regular, fixed nighttime residence, no matter whether the homeless live with relatives or sleep in parksRead MoreSociological Perspective on Homelessness1248 Words   |  5 Pagesadditionally reference sociological theory as a means of explanation for homelessness, such its causes, the demographics/populations, and other prominent known characteristics of homeless people. There are individuals and groups who choose to be, from a normative societal perspective, homeless, but for a great deal of the homeless population, it can be a treacherous and tragic lifestyle that is a result of a distinct set of social, societal, and individual factors. Due to the relative nature of cultureRead MoreHate Crime upon the Homeless1526 Words   |  6 Pageshate crimes about violence and hate towards members of our society who are homeless. People who happen to be homeless, by the nature of not having a home are more vulnerable to attacks both verbally and physically. I believe that violence upon homeless individuals is a hate crime because they are targeted specifically because they are homeless, and seen as less important than â€Å"regular† people with homes. These incidents usually involve a younger man or teenager. Most of the homeless victims are alsoRead MoreWhy Homelessness Is Worldwide And Social Problem858 Words   |  4 PagesFirst and foremost, how do we defined a homeless person? According to National Health Care for the Homeless Council, homeless is defined as â€Å"an individual who lacks housing, including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provi des temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in a transitional housing† (â€Å"definition of homelessness,† n.d.). It is important to recognize that homelessness is worldwide and social

The Blame Game Native Born And Foreign Born - 922 Words

The Blame Game: Native-Born and Foreign-Born Ever since the start of opportunity and a new life in America, thousands of people have migrated over. The number of illegal aliens has hit an all time high as much as twenty million people. Many of whom may already have family over here or plan to start a new life away from their old one. Immigrants started flooding in from Europe into the New World as early as the 1600s, but there was not much of a difference until the 1900s. The trickle of different people began to be a river of people. Immigrants from all over the world entered the United States. People came from South America, Great Britain, Africa, etc, but the most heavily populated group of immigrants was the Irish. Most small famines that were exposed to a certain country or region were from the result of starvation or infectious disease for usually one or two seasons. Unfortunately, the Irish were not too lucky when the famine of the late 1840s hit. Potato blight happened consist ently. A not so complex and proper name for it would be called the â€Å"fungus Phytophthora infestans, [which] robbed more than one-third of the population of their usual means of subsistence,† (Donnelly 1) lasting for about four or five years successively. Nonetheless, prejudice has been widely known across America due to the fact that ignorant Americans feel as if America is being overrun by immigrants. There are current â€Å"myths† on how foreign-born people are perceived and thought of in today’sShow MoreRelatedTrade Policy For The New President Essay1162 Words   |  5 PagesKyra Boland Pecorino EC 430-001 10 November 2016 Trade Policy for the New President: Concerning Immigration In the recent decades, member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have seen rapid growth in the foreign-born population which has stimulated research on the socio-economic impacts of immigration. There has been great amounts of research done to produce literature like that of Gould (1994) that propose that immigration has proven statistically to haveRead MoreMy Parents With The United States From Vietnam Essay2316 Words   |  10 PagesAmerican traditions and culture. Americans had the expectations that immigrants would be willing to integrate themselves into society. Looking upon this, what does being an American exactly mean? If Americans were allowed to speak English, enjoy Football game nights, and had the freedom to express their religious belief in Christianity and Judaism, should immigrants have the exact same rights as Americans? Immigrants are humans and they should have the same rights Americans do. They become citizens likeRead M oreMy Parents With The United States From Vietnam Essay2261 Words   |  10 PagesAmerican traditions and culture. Americans had the expectations that immigrants would be willing to integrate themselves into society. Looking upon this, what does being an American exactly mean? If Americans were allowed to speak English, enjoy Football game nights, and had the freedom to express their religious belief in Christianity and Judaism, should immigrants have the exact same rights as Americans? Immigrants are humans and they should have the same rights Americans do. They become citizens justRead MoreMy Parents From The United States From Vietnam Essay2401 Words   |  10 Pagesthat this exemplified the view held among many Americans. They feared that immigrants changed the dynamics of the American traditions and culture. Looking upon this, what did being an American exactly mean? If Americans spoke English, enjoyed Football game nights, and had the freedom to express their religious belie f in Christianity, then immigrants should have the exact same rights to do what they pleased. Immigrants were Americans as well. They were citizens after going through the process of paperworkRead More Colonialism and Post Colonial Ethnic Conflict in East African Countries 1922 Words   |  8 PagesFrom the end of the nineteenth century until the attainment of independence in the early 1960s, the countries of East Africa were under the colonial administration of European empires. After decades of foreign rule which saw unparalleled transformations within society, the post-colonial states that emerged have been blighted by ethnic conflict. It has been argued that the beliefs of British, Belgian and German administrators led them to completely reorganise the societies they governed based on aRead MoreIndian English Novel17483 Words   |  70 Pagesliterature. Hence the post colonial literature in India witnessed a revolution against the idiom which the colonial writers followed. Gra dually the Indian English authors began employing the techniques of hybrid language, magic realism peppered with native themes. Thus from a post colonial era Indian literature ushered into the modern and then the post-modern era. The saga of the Indian English novel therefore stands as the tale of Changing tradition, the story of a changing India. The stories wereRead MoreSAT Top 30 Essay Evidence18536 Words   |  75 Pages............................................................................................ 5 Christopher Columbus (â€Å"Discoverer† of the New World?)........................................................................ 7 Sacajawea (Mysterious Native American Guide) ....................................................................................... 9 Artists, Authors, and Musicians: Bob Dylan (â€Å"The Prophet of Rock and Roll†) ..............................................................Read MoreTeaching Problems15782 Words   |  64 Pagesin intensive care. The textbooks need to set out many more classroom activities and exercises. The greatest need is for the teachers’ books to be in Swahili. This would be in-line with most other countries where the teachers’ materials are in the native language, or L1. For instance, in England teachers who teach French have all their teachers’ materials in English. This is essential if they are to understand the instructions and explanations. It is pretentious and suicidal in Tanzania to continueRead MoreHow Vainly Men Themselves Amaze6377 Words   |  26 Pages ---- Doris’s leaving and the restoration of the former circumstances Themes Going Native White men actually had a general fear of ‘going native’ which means adapting to the native way of life. So many white men in the colonies insisted on wearing European clothes or retained their typical European lifestyle. They were afraid to lose their own identity in having too much contact with the natives which would threaten their authority and power. According to imperialist ideology they felt superiorRead MoreEvil Disney, Research Response to Henry Giroux5383 Words   |  22 Pagesallowed them unprecedented freedoms associated with a private company and the pandora’s box that is Evil Mickey. First,what is the Disney corporation and how did it come to be? It was created almost single handedly by Walter Elias Walt Disney. He was born on December 5, 1901, one of five children. Walt had a love for drawing cartoons early on and even made money as a child by selling some of them to family and friends. When he was 16 he joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver for WW1 after being

Hegemonic Masculinity in Sociology Text free essay sample

A discussion on how the topic of hegemonic masculinity is presented in three sociology texts. This paper discusses hegemonic masculinity which is defined as masculinity constructed in relation to the various subordinate masculinities as well as in relation to women. The paper shows how this topic is demonstrated in three sociology texts: Riding The Bull at Gilleys by Scully and Marolla, Selling Crack by Anderson, and Fraternities and Rape on Campus by Martin and Hummer. The paper shows that these articles name hegemonic masculinity as one of the main culprits to the social problem they address. Many offenders believe that they have the right, because they are men, to discipline and punish women. Rape is used to put women in their place. Thus the men prove their manhood. The most disturbing scenario involves the idea of an added bonus. The men in these situations were burglarizing a residence and figured why not rape the homeowner, after realizing they were in control of the situation. We will write a custom essay sample on Hegemonic Masculinity in Sociology Text or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The last type of rape was that of sexual access. When a woman was unwilling or unavailable, the rapist is able to seize what is not offered, rape of conquest. Many of these rapes involve white victims and black perpetrators. Overall, most of the rapists suggest that they believe their victims deserved being raped or were asking for it. Many also felt that they had not committed a crime at all. In the final analysis, it was found that dominance was the objective of most rapes. To dominate a subordinate group in order to prove his masculinity, a man is engaging in a show of hegemonic masculinity.

The Hole In The Net Persuasive Essay Example For Students

The Hole In The Net Persuasive Essay Our social safety net has a hole in it. The fibers of the net aredecaying; the hole is getting bigger. More people are falling through,and the people with the least strength are holding the most of theweight. Three to four million Americans are homeless according to theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 5.5% cannot find jobsaccording to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and the figure is overtwice that in the 20-24 year old age group, according to the Departmentof Education. A very slim minority of these people are sucking off thesystem, but the vast majority just had a bad break. Such is the story of Peter and Megan, as told by author Jonathan Kozolin his Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award winner Rachel and HerChildren: Homeless Families in America. Peter was a carpenter and shewas a homemaker who raised their five children. They lived in a neat,working class apartment building in New York City. Peter didconstruction for public housing projects, and had a vast ar ray oftechnical skills and tools: I did carpentry. I painted. I could dowallpapering. I earned a living. We spent Sundays walking with ourchildren on the beach. It may sound like this was a happy family,living the American Dream. Perhaps they were they were selfsufficient for all of the 12 years that they had been married, they hada steady income, a close and loving family, a home, and a chance fortheir children to do even better than they had done. Then the firestruck. They came racing home after hearing the news, only to find thateverything had been destroyed. The children lost their pet dog and cat,Megan lost her grandmothers china, but Peter perhaps lost the most: histools. Since the fire, he has not had a job, because a carpenter withouttools might as well not have eyes. He explained that for every job hehad, he would add a new tool to his collection. But they all went up inthe blaze. When Kozol first met them, they were living in a welfarehotel in New York, where they had bee n living for two years. They cantget out because federal assistance programs (better known as welfare)tell them that their family limit for an apartment is $366 a month this with seven family members living in New York City. (In comparison,thats about the rock bottom price for a week in a New York City oneroom motel.) In their two room apartment, the entire place is fallingapart, with crumbling walls, no working toilets, and a stench Kozoldescribes as overpowering. We will write a custom essay on The Hole In The Net Persuasive specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now A year later, Kozol meets Peter and Megan again. This time theyreliving on the street, and their children have been taken away, all todifferent foster homes, because, Peter says White children are indemand by the adoption agencies. The social safety net designed to helppeople who are down on their luck: where is it for Peter and Megan, notto mention their children? And without a safety net, how can we expectpeople to fulfill this American Dream? Evidently, we cant. Its asgood as dead. Peter and Megan are real people. This is a real story. For as long asanybody can remember, weve been pounded by success stories of theAmerican Dream. But for every Colin Powell, Lee Iacocca, Bob Dole, orArnold Schwartzenegger, there are dozens, if not hundreds of Peters andMegans. And as long as there are people who want jobs and cant getthem, as long as children live on the streets because of no fault oftheir own, as long as the value of a dollar for the worker keepsdeclining, we cant really say that the American Dream is a reality. The American Dream doesnt have a set definition. It used to meanhaving a husband who worked and provided for his family, a wife whoraised the children, and for every generation, a chance to do betterthan your parents and to have your children do even better than you. Buttoday a new definition of the dream is in order. It basically comes downtoday to the knowledge that if you, as President Clinton says, workhard and play by the rules, you will be able to provide food, clothing,shelter, medical care, education, and a few pleasures for your family. First, though, society needs to get its proverbial house in order. As asociety we need to make certain that some things are brought back to thetable if we want to restore the dream, specifically:Job stability Without a steady source of income, its impossible tohave a budget on which to base how you allot your money, and obviously asteady cash flow is the only way to purchase the necessities. A superior pubic education system In order to get ahead, you have tohave an education. In order for people to allow their children to dobetter than they did, their children have to have more education. Someprograms like a voucher system that would jeopardize the publiceducation system are threats to the American way of life because theystrip public schools of their income base and direct it to private andparochial education, which should only be subsidized by parents, theprivate sector, and the countrys religious institutions that we give atax-exempt status to for this reason among others. Some would say thatthe public education system has failed, that the buildings resembleprisons more than schools, that there is incessant violence, and a wholehost of other complaints, but they can all be fixed as soon as we starttaking care of the underclass that we created. It has become aself-perpetuation situation and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Certainlynobody expects there to be an American D ream without a firm educationalbasis, and certainly nobody believes that our country would have beenbetter off if we has never had publicly subsidized education. .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .postImageUrl , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:hover , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:visited , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:active { border:0!important; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:active , .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307 .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc721a800057d00c982dcc2a9357b0307:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Perfect Storm EssayDollar power for the worker Inflation must be low and the dollarmust remain strong in a world market. Almost all workers are now also incompetition with every other worker in the world. Purchasing power mustbe kept high for the working class, and the minimum wage must be enoughon which to support a family. According to Harvard economics professorLarry Katz, the budget would be balanced today if real wages had realincreased at the same rate over the last two decades as they had overthe two and a half before that, all other factors remaining the same. Inaddition, the dollar cannot remain strong without balanced internationaltrade and an internal stimulati on of the economy. Tariffs are ahistorically useful tool for restoring trade imbalances. They add moneyto the federal budget while encouraging Americans to buy domesticallymade products and sending a strong message to companies that operatesweatshops in places like Haiti, Indonesia, El Salvador, and Sri Lanka,all places where popular brands like Nike, Reebok, Structure, TommyHilfiger, Guess, and Liz Claiborne have factories. These sweatshops bothdeprive their employees of basic human rights but cost Americans jobs. A message of hope from public officials The government must see theAmerican Dream as a viable possibility, or else they will plan forfailure and self-destruction. And finally, a net to fall onto as needed. Every time someone switchesjobs, has an illness, has an unforseeable disaster, or falls between thecracks, we cant expect him or her to start all over again. The wholepurpose behind this safety net is to allow people to tread water for afew minutes when they need it the most. Its seldom a way of life,except for people that fall through the gaping hole in the center. It will be impossible to attain these goals without some form ofgovernment intervention. Conservatives talk about the heavy hand ofsocialism like it was the Antichrist. This will not lead to governmentregulation of every facet of our lives; it will merely set up some newprograms, eliminate some old ones, and restructure the existing ones topatch the hole so that the net can catch people and help them rebound. * * * The Homeless Voices Project is a project sponsored by the NationalCoalition for the Homeless that gets the stories of the homeless to showthe more fortunate what theyre going through. The best way to expresshow the dream is failing is by telling the stories of those that it hasfailed for in their own words, the words of the men and women who feelthe pain of desertion by the country that promised to help make themstrong. (The actual voices of these people can be heard on the Internetat http://nch.ari.net/vocpage1.html using Netscape, MS-Explorer, or NCSAMosaic with the appr opriate helper applications.) Every one of thesepeople has been failed by one of the tenets of the dream. Mike, likePeter, is a construction worker. Im a construction worker, unemployed at the moment, and living at ashelter. Theres three or four guys who are on the same project with me,who live there. The situation here in Washington is that there areno.no strong unions or regulations for putting up these governmentbuildings and as a result, we just make enough to basically feedourselves. Andby then, the job is over. And then we have to look foranother one which may be a year from now, and its just notpossiblefor us to get into the the permanent world that most people are in. And most people are laying people off instead of hiring, theres just nopermanent jobs available. The best you can do is a temporary one. So, wego from one temporary situation to another, and never manage to getenough money together to to do anythingfor ourselves in apermanent way. So its kind of a self-perpetuating situation. I dont own a car The recreation, if you want to call it that, ismostly with the church I belong to. I go out to their activities. Wehave picnics retreatsevening activities tutoring, things likethat. And thats what I do in the evenings. Its good to get awayfromfrom the hopelessness that most people like myself have to dealwith twenty-four hours a day. .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .postImageUrl , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:hover , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:visited , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:active { border:0!important; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:active , .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414 .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue80d8a77e22521634f731eb9f48d9414:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Huckelberyy Finn EssaySo, hopefully it wont always be like this, but I dont see anythinghappening to change it right now.Mike is one of the lucky ones. He can at least work from time to time,and make some money. But there is no way that he can move up in theworld when he cant even afford a place to live. The conventional wisdomis to sacrifice, but where is that sacrifice to come from? Withcorporate America restructuring (read: laying off and firing), it hasbecome impossible for people like Mike to enjoy the first part of thedream: job stability. And when he has a job, his dollar is worth theleast its been worth for the working class since the Eisenhoweradministration. Angela had a job, paid her taxes, and played by the rules. But a stringof unfortunate events put her living in a cardboard box in Manhattan. She is educated, hard-working, and thoughtful. But she, like so many,slipped a little bit and there was nothing to catch her. Hello everyone, my name is Angela Owens, and I am homeless. I want youto know that homelessness can happento anyone. It can happen toyou, it happened to me. I had three years of college. I worked two jobsfor four years, and things happen and that is one of the reasons whyI am homeless. Uh.., you dont necessarily have to be mentallyincompetent, you dont necessarily have to be handicapped. Things canhappen, whether you have a silver spoon in your mouth, or you are justbelow the poverty line. You can become homeless.Paul Deitrich is an African-American man who saw his minimum wage jobgo from one on which he could take care of himself to one where he couldbarely scrape by and have no real savings to speak of. Then that jobbottomed out on him, he got his two weeks notice, and he was on thestreet within a month. Both the lack of job stability and the lack ofdollar power contributed to his fall. And there is no net to help himget back up how can you apply for a job when you dont have a pho nenumber, address or even any clean clothes?Its a real tough jobto pay the high cost of renton minimum wage,or a small pension. Its really almost impossible. The economic bindthat people are in, who have real small incomes, or no incomes at all isunbelievable. I remember in the last years of Dr. Kings life, he movedaway from social commodation (sic) issues and concentrated more oneconomic issues in the Southin terms of supporting the organization ofhospitals and garbage workers to raise the minimum wage to help removethis bind. The bind got worse, because nowadays with computerization andautomation, the whole strata of lower level jobs has been completelyeliminated. And Dr. King, in the last years of his life, was not onlyinterested in that, he was organizing at that time a poor peoplesencampment to dramatize the terrible bind the lower levels of oursocieties are in. And in fact, he had begun to formulate a slogan, whichmight describe whats happening to hundreds of thousands of peo ple herein the United States. And that slogan waswritten: Unbridled Capitalism is Economic Terrorism And we have tolive with that. And it drives many of us to despairand behind thatdespair, we turn to those things that numb our despair Similar to the enclosure system at the end of feudalism, when the bigland owners realized they could make far more money by driving the serfsoff the land and growing sheep for the factories. And the cities inNorthern Europe filled up with many, many hundreds of thousands ofpeople who had a rural culture, and didnt know how to deal with theurban culture at all. And the despair got so great. That is when in thehistory of the world alcoholism became epidemicout of that despair. And it seems like were seeing a similar, similar situation now. And when youre homeless, where do you wash your clothes? When yourehomeless, where do you clean yourself? The good God-fearing women in thechurches provide us with food, which is a great blessing. When you lookfor a job, where do you tell them to call you back? When you make phonecalls at a public phone, you might lose at least one out of fourquartersWhere do you get a drink in this kind of weather?Society has truly abandoned the people who can be heard the least. Butif we ignore the hole in the net any longer, the middle class will erodeinto poverty one family at a time, and then, and only then, America willnot be able to recover from what it will have become.