"Maybe the issue with homelessness isn't that I'm seeing trash in my neighborhood. Maybe it's that there are literal human beings sleeping next to that trash."
Hey Leah one more “Four Americas” follow up, if you have time you might want to read: Jonathan Chait’s Oct 12 2022 NY Magazine piece “POLITICS OCT. 12, 2022
“How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party; The hostile, paranoid, and increasingly authoritarian path ahead for American conservatism.”
Toward the end he describes a scene where he’s singled out as a reporter, ridiculed as “slumped-shouldered, ‘goblinesque’ -- very chilling part of that story I thought, as it indicates the group he was covering wants to do away with journalism entirely as I've understood it. (I listened to it on the Audm app -- love that app!)
akin maybe? to your “Bundyville II” episode, the one in which you attended, I think, a rally or meeting which featured as keynoter Lavoy Finicum's wife Jeannette.
Leah, I always benefit so much from your writings -- have listened to Bundyville twice through, just amazing. I have different sources for this conversation I guess. I’m reading “Sanfransicko” and have just finished a very sobering dissection of American life in George Packer’s “HOW AMERICA FRACTURED INTO FOUR PARTS “ The Atlantic July/August 2021. Have you read it? So I think now I'm gleaning from the tone of your conversation with K Rambo which of the four Americas you both tend to live in, the ”just” America - which is strongest in pockets of urban America. The rest of us live in the meritocracy, in some way shape or form. Politicians know this. So I wonder what journalism really is these days? Is it truly discovering and explaining and revealing something that actually is there? Reporting on something? That's what I want from journalism that I read, or watch, or listen to.
Mike, thank you so much for reading. I read Packer's article with great interest this morning, and I'm grateful to you for sending it. I always am trying to figure out what journalism is really for right now, too, but also how I fit into it as a wayward freelance journalist in a lesser-talked-about region of the United States. I suppose this newsletter, in a way, is a bit of my exploration of that. Thanks again.
Lovely response Leah, and thank you. I'm very glad to be one of your supporters and to read what you're thinking about. Regarding homelessness, this is so tough. Recently, in a tour of the Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, I learned that Abraham Lincoln had to step over the bodies of homeless people in Washington DC, in some hallways in government buildings. During the civil war. Has there ever been a western civilization that didn't have homeless? The indigenous peoples probably are the one exception, I can't imagine the Nez Perce had any homeless.
Homelessness today is different than it was in the civil war, and different than it was when I was growing up. When there were winos and the drug was MD2020. That was a different kind of high than fentanyl. People hooked on this stuff today, yes they need resources and shelter, but that doesn't solve their problems. And it doesn't solve the problem of how the sober community should be community with them.
A baby boomer like me just can't buy into the imperial voice saying, the focus should be on the needs of the one sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a business, and not the needs of the business owner. It's as if those are two completely different moral orders. But are they? Has there ever been anyone who started a small business from scratch who didn't suffer? suffering is a universal. The Buddhists have a good approach to it. They understand the equality of the human experience regarding suffering.
Then you can drill down – and realize that we really should have compassion for all.
so glad you read the Packer piece, I am your loyal reader!
Hey Leah one more “Four Americas” follow up, if you have time you might want to read: Jonathan Chait’s Oct 12 2022 NY Magazine piece “POLITICS OCT. 12, 2022
“How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party; The hostile, paranoid, and increasingly authoritarian path ahead for American conservatism.”
Toward the end he describes a scene where he’s singled out as a reporter, ridiculed as “slumped-shouldered, ‘goblinesque’ -- very chilling part of that story I thought, as it indicates the group he was covering wants to do away with journalism entirely as I've understood it. (I listened to it on the Audm app -- love that app!)
akin maybe? to your “Bundyville II” episode, the one in which you attended, I think, a rally or meeting which featured as keynoter Lavoy Finicum's wife Jeannette.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/how-to-make-a-semi-fascist-party.html
Leah, I always benefit so much from your writings -- have listened to Bundyville twice through, just amazing. I have different sources for this conversation I guess. I’m reading “Sanfransicko” and have just finished a very sobering dissection of American life in George Packer’s “HOW AMERICA FRACTURED INTO FOUR PARTS “ The Atlantic July/August 2021. Have you read it? So I think now I'm gleaning from the tone of your conversation with K Rambo which of the four Americas you both tend to live in, the ”just” America - which is strongest in pockets of urban America. The rest of us live in the meritocracy, in some way shape or form. Politicians know this. So I wonder what journalism really is these days? Is it truly discovering and explaining and revealing something that actually is there? Reporting on something? That's what I want from journalism that I read, or watch, or listen to.
Mike, thank you so much for reading. I read Packer's article with great interest this morning, and I'm grateful to you for sending it. I always am trying to figure out what journalism is really for right now, too, but also how I fit into it as a wayward freelance journalist in a lesser-talked-about region of the United States. I suppose this newsletter, in a way, is a bit of my exploration of that. Thanks again.
Lovely response Leah, and thank you. I'm very glad to be one of your supporters and to read what you're thinking about. Regarding homelessness, this is so tough. Recently, in a tour of the Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, I learned that Abraham Lincoln had to step over the bodies of homeless people in Washington DC, in some hallways in government buildings. During the civil war. Has there ever been a western civilization that didn't have homeless? The indigenous peoples probably are the one exception, I can't imagine the Nez Perce had any homeless.
Homelessness today is different than it was in the civil war, and different than it was when I was growing up. When there were winos and the drug was MD2020. That was a different kind of high than fentanyl. People hooked on this stuff today, yes they need resources and shelter, but that doesn't solve their problems. And it doesn't solve the problem of how the sober community should be community with them.
A baby boomer like me just can't buy into the imperial voice saying, the focus should be on the needs of the one sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a business, and not the needs of the business owner. It's as if those are two completely different moral orders. But are they? Has there ever been anyone who started a small business from scratch who didn't suffer? suffering is a universal. The Buddhists have a good approach to it. They understand the equality of the human experience regarding suffering.
Then you can drill down – and realize that we really should have compassion for all.
so glad you read the Packer piece, I am your loyal reader!
Mike Graef