Thursday, October 16, 2014

Let's Talk About #Inequality


Today is Blog Action Day 2014. Each year, BAD organizes bloggers from over 100 countries to write on a single theme for one day of coordinated action. This year's theme is Inequality, with the catchy tagline, "Let's talk about #inequality" (including the hashtag).

I've been thinking about this for a few days, wondering what I would actually write this morning. I've  written much about marriage equality, and disparities in racial and gender equality already. And as important as it is, I'm not sure I could stomach another post ranting about the 1%. So those topics would be out.

Somehow my thoughts came to Lyndon Johnson, who in signing the Voting Rights Act did much to bring about a certain amount of justice and equality to our electoral system - and how our current Supreme Court has done what they could to dismantle that and turn the clock back on democracy.

LBJ knew that voting rights were not enough, and that there had to be equality in education, economic opportunity, and more. "We must open the doors of opportunity," Johnson said, "But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors."

Political cowardice prevented much of what needed to happen from happening. LBJ had a few choice quotes for that too: "While you're saving your face, you're losing your ass," and "I may not know much, but I know the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit."

Then, last night, looking through Facebook, I came upon a posting from a social worker friend. At a training on homeless shelter rules they were presented with "Rule 18:"
Anyone unable to perform activities of daily living (e.g. using the bathroom facilities, getting into/out of bed, eating, dressing and undressing, etc.) during the hours in the shelter on her/his own or with support from non-shelter staff will result in an immediate denial of services.
(Arrangements for non-shelter support staff are the responsibility of the client.
Notice regarding such support staff must be provided to the shelter staff in advance.)
Sanction Period: Permanent
I commented:
When I worked in a shelter in San Jose the rules were pretty much the same (and in reaction to hospitals putting people who should never have been discharged into taxis with instructions to the driver to dump them at our door).
I frequently think of one such gentleman who we refused service to who turned up the next day, dead in our dumpster where he had spent his final night.
That was actually only one example of a client (or, would-be-client) of ours dying as a result of our bureaucracy's inability to provide care in every situation, and each system trying to pass the buck (well, there were no bucks, so they were passing the "problem") to another torn corner of the "safety net."

There's a little taste of inequality in action. Inequality kills. Not always as dramatically as that, in fact, it took years for a lifetime of inequality to take its toll on that one particular gentleman. Then again, in Ferguson we saw how it can kill in an instant.

Not that I spend much time worrying about such things. As LBJ said, "I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day."

This morning, I decided to take a quick look at the feed on the Blog Action Day site and see what others were writing about. If you only read one other #inequality post today, make it this one: Inequality and "understanding" the poor, on a blog called "Simply Smart Dinner Plans" - not where I expected to find something of this political caliber.

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