In President Obama’s town hall about the economic crisis in Fort Myers, FL today, a woman named Henrietta Hughes - facing homelesness thanks to the crisis - gave voice to the economic concerns of real Americans being dismissed by the conservative echo chamber and the mainstream media.
Ms. Hughes asked the President: “We need something more than the vehicle and parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.”
The President responded that “We’re going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you”, then he embraced her.
Let’s do this right for Ms. Hughes and the rest of America. The downturn is feeding a growing number of unemployed, and stretching the government’s ability to cope with a rising number of claims. Unemployment may leap into the double digits at some point this year; it is already 10 per cent in Fort Meyers, where the cancer-stricken Hughes lives. In Spain, the hardest country hit in Europe, unemployment is at an astounding 14.4 per cent and projected to get worse through 2010. Worldwide, the number of working poor — those who make roughly $2 U.S. per day— is projected to increase to 1.4 billion, or 45 per cent of all of those employed. In the 21st century ‘purpose drought’ we are all clawing for a reason to exist. Void of any semblance of direction we have created the worst religious following of all - hyper-capitalism as a reason to exist. This is not sustainable, not healthy and most of all not worthy of our great potential as human beings. Please, I beg of you, take stock and re-order your ‘list of importance’. In this period of financial concern, what better time to find real self worth.
"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions,
great is our sin"
~Charles Darwin
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