A Right to a Roof

I just posted this on facebook and thought how ephemeral those posts are -- there a minute and then gone forever. So here it is:

You know, I have friends who are gay and I have all the sympathy in the world for couples who want to get married. They do deserve equal rights. However, I have much more concern for people who are homeless and living in the streets -- maybe dying in the streets.

In Germany, shelter is a RIGHT! Can't we be that civilized? What is wrong with us? We are the number ONE country in the WORLD? And we can't house our people? Tell me what is wrong. I need to know. It troubles me enormously.

Women selling themselves? And they get arrested when they really don't have any other options? This all makes me sick and not so proud of my country.

Yes, we send millions and billions to other countries. I don't mind. We are rich enough to do that. But we can't tax our millionaires and billionaires because our congress won't let them? Because the people we voted into office won't take care of those same people?

Too much is bothering me these days. And the prison system that is becoming a profit system and gleefully locking people away. Not good. We shouldn't be all that proud of how we are dealing with our problems at home.

Tonight I will go to a gathering at the home of a family whose son has been sent to prison for 15 years -- without any evidence that he actually did something wrong. The idea is to start a foundation to help other families in similar circumstances. We don't  doubt that they exist. We don't doubt it at all.

Yesterday, I was in tears. A good friend -- a college instructor who went to GSU in the masters program with me -- was unglued. Her son was stopped by Douglas County police for a broken tail light. You want to put that on your list of major crimes. They dragged him out of his car and seven cops beat him close to senseless. Then, they threw him in jail with no medical care for two days. When he got to the hospital finally, his mother was able to find him and bail him out. He is left with various charges that have to be answered in court. WAAAAAT???

I'm working on an art exhibit and short film about sex trafficking in Georgia. It's been said that we are the number one sex capital in the country. Where do you start with so many issues. It's not Denmark that is rotten.

Rereading this piece, I am well aware that it is badly organized, too many problems -- which one should come first? I'm sorry for my country, worried about my children and their futures. Worried about generations to follow. I'm old and have probably seen too much and am too aware that it all seems to be getting worse. Skies are not so blue, storms are worse, trees and green fields disappearing, poisons entering our water and our food...and not enough people who care.