Famed editorial cartoonist Herbert Lawrence Block’s classic criticism of the economic strategies of the Reagan administration, published on Feb. 2, 1984.
The fact that such a stark cartoon remains poignant over 30 years later isn’t surprising in the least. But the immediate relevance of the scenario it depicts to current affairs is.
For anyone who hasn’t been to DC, this image was and is still absolutely true to life. The homelessness problem is overwhelming, and although the city is always trying to find ways to dissuade its homeless people from staying in high-traffic tourist areas, it’s very common to be able to see a memorial and a disabled veteran panhandling in one single glance.
If you have any spare money left over from the holidays, please consider sending it to a DC area shelter. People think this is the ‘south’ and it doesn’t get cold… sadly not true. People freeze to death every year because they have to sleep outside.
DC is the most stark portrait of modern America I’ve ever seen. I used to live in the historically black area, near Howard U, which is of course run down and neglected to the point that there were constant shootings – “DC fireworks” – and muggings and beatings. Once, in the height of summer, after a block party, some dude got killed in the local trash routing station and a MOUNTAIN of garbage taller than a person developed and stayed for like two weeks. And another time a water main broke and the whole street was flooded with clean drinking water for at least a week and when I called to report it the lady said they already knew – which was several days after it started. So clean water just poured out of this main and was immediately wasted for at least a week. And another time my (single white lady with a baby) downstairs neighbor thought someone had broken into the cellar, and it took the cops over 90 mins to get there. Turns out it was only cat sized rats swimming in three feet of standing water (from the broken main).
If you want to understand how horrifying the divide between the haves and have-nots is in this country, go to DC and just spend some time on any neighborhoods connected by the green or yellow lines. AKA the lines some Tea Party asshole asked me how to avoid when they were protesting black people or queers I guess??? (For those who don’t follow me closely, I’m black and queer.)
The same neighborhood I lived in is the one my former (white, ex-Army) coworker was wandering around after dark when a cab drove up onto the sidewalk and was like “You need to leave here.”
And if you ever wonder why it’s so important for DC to gain statehood, it’s because of this. The people of DC want it to improve, but Congress uses the District as their own social experiment. DC wanted to legalize medical cannabis … Congress shot it down. Same for safe injection sites (I believe). The reason the rates of HIV and AIDS are so high in the district is because Congress passes some ordinance/law saying that carrying condoms is allowable evidence of prostitution, so nobody does. This is the same place where a cop got PROBATION for shooting into an occupied car (occupied with BLACK QUEER PEOPLE) and [killing a transgender woman](http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/01/11/probation-for-d-c-cop-in-trans-shooting-case/).
This is our nation’s capital. It should offend everyone that it’s allowed to languish in this state. While you’re yelling at your Congresspeople, consider adding this to the list of grievances.
^^^^
So maybe Obama should’ve given that 50 mill to the poor instead of using it to go on vacation?
Jesus fuck!
You had Four Years of your walking Ponzi Scheme to fix everything!
Perhaps he was not the messiah?