Human Rights In Our Own Backyard

The Us Constitution makes things clear; the religious clergy can’t run the show, and the military can’t either. But there’s no prohibition against rich men controlling things. The chapter Preying on the American Dream is all about lenders and their subprime loans in poor (often black) neighborhoods. Throughout the USA, you’ll find run-down neighborhoods full of small houses, often at the “bottom” where the floods are, or on “the other side of the tracks.” Less affluent families want smaller homes, but these are often built in the physically less desirable areas. If you go into a “nice” neighborhood, like Bergenfield (New Jersey) you’ll see that the safe streets have large two-story houses. The small ones are all built on the main road, with constant traffic noise, and the danger of a kid being hit by a car. The reason is simple; big houses cost more to build, and nobody wants to spend $250,000 on a house in an unsafe area. Now there are empty foreclosed houses in Bergenfield, because the banks want too much money. If you’re willing to pay $100,000 for a small home, you have to find another area.

The chapter Food Not Bombs discusses dumpster divers who provide free meals to the homeless. The book brings up the debate over whether food is an entitlement that should be provided for free (like free school lunch) or a privilege that you pay for. Housing is another debate of entitlement versus privilege; after Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans, FEMA wanted everyone out of their trailers by 2009, but the old houses still had no running water.

In the post-9/11 America you have the Homeland Security department, with its massive budget eating into our tax dollars, and the terror suspects being dealt with heavy-handed tactics. It seems that the more desperate the government gets, the more they resort to extreme methods.