Equity

 Sundays I think of the Galilean, not from religious fervor, but because I was trained to do so as a youth and things stick. Lately, I’ve been concerned, since I don’t have to worry constantly about paying bills, with the theoretical aspects of urban planning. Now what would He (with a capital “h”) have to say about urban planning? I don’t know.

He did say, we are told, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” According to another source, he just said, "Blessed are the poor." I sort of like the first since I've know some pretty rich people who were awfully poor in spirit, even people who have buildings named after them.

This hit home to me a number of years ago while working on a project involving a working-class neighborhood in decline. I had attended a workshop by the then current “guru of planning” who had assured the crowd that the type planning pioneered by him and his wife would cure everything from ugly neighborhoods to socio-economic inequity to the “low-down blues.” He was an engaging speaker, much in demand, and charismatic. He enthralled the crowd with his speech and all the slides, pictures, and pronouncements.

I was still hyped when an activist introduced me to a woman who lived in the neighborhood in question. She was talkative. That encouraged me. I just had to ask her about interaction with her neighbors. (The guru had assured us that was a sign of the righteousness of his planning model).

She turned stone cold when I asked. “Mr.,” she said, “I’m a single-mother of two boys whose father ran off with another woman and doesn’t provide a penny for support. I hold down two jobs so I can feed them and provide a place to live. When I’m at my second job, I lock my boys in the house so they don’t get killed by stray bullets. I don’t know who my neighbors are and, quite frankly, don’t care.”

Since then, I’ve not been so sure that streetscapes, bike paths, and inspired urban design are the answers to what our cities face.

Fear

 These words stand before you written by a man who is far from perfect. On my decent side, I love reading, studying ideas, from science to history to woodworking. On the negative, I’m “not eaten up” as my Sainted Mother would say, with the desire to do manual labor. I’m prone to be mercurial at times. A close friend once said that I “don’t have 24-hour a day attitude about anything." I’m a bit selfish and known, I think, as a nice person except when I’m not.

 I do have a consistent attitude about some things. I eschew, for example, blind bigotry and prejudice aimed at those who don’t deserve it. This includes people of color, people whose genes have produced different sexual makeups, women in power, and immigrants fleeing death and persecution. I abhor violence toward others, crime, deceit, physical and mental abuse, disrespect for the physically challenged, gratuitous lying, the use of inherited wealth (really any wealth but particularly the “lucky sperm” kind) to mistreat or take advantage of others.

 I’m ambivalent about most religions but hostile to any that espouses hatred, violence, or bigotry. I’m very suspicious (a condition taught me by aforementioned Sainted Mother) of religious fanatics and hypocrites. I especially steer clear of those who use religion for financial or political reasons.

 I’ve paid taxes each year since 1961, served my country for four years, one in a war zone, and have managed to convince a remarkable woman to keep me for over 48 years. The only financial handouts I’ve received were via the G.I. Bill and my portion of stock values of companies that are heavily subsidized by local, state, and federal taxes, (which is almost all of them).

 A typical 2020 version of J. Alfred Prufrock you say? I’ll accept that. But just imagine, only imagine, the shock I’ve felt during the last four years as I’ve learned that close friends, some of whom I’ve used as role models, have succumbed to the trumpet call of a group ruled by a man whose every action stands in direct opposition to everything I love and respect, who preaches and supports all the elements of life and history that scare me into a primal fear and dread of living. Now, it seems

 Bad is good,

Good is bad,

Beauty is ugly,

Ugly is beautiful,

Facts are stupid things.

The U.S. Constitution sucks.

Greed is the highest order of things,

Altruism is for fools and liberal fantasizers,

Science is a foolish fantasy of progressives, and

The function of politics is to make your enemies weep.

 I weep, but not for myself. I’m old and everything I write is “from a warm room on a full stomach.”

 I weep for the grandchildren of my friends and pray, “to whatever gods may be," that they are never born poor or different.

Blessed are the poor

Please pardon the length but my heart is too burdened today for brevity. The profession I chose, and still dabble in, has suffered a horrible blow, perhaps a fatal one. Urban planners must deal with countless factors that determine how a city functions. Some challenges appear new and full blown. Solar panels please some and infuriate others. How does a city balance those feelings for the common good? Outside interests buy homes in a quiet neighborhood and covert them into mini-motels. What could possibly go wrong? Digitally active billboards appear that could, some believe, distract already anxiety-burdened motorists. Actually though, it turned out that nobody looked at the darn things. Problem solved.

Throughout recent history, however, the profession sought one goal that would surely have pleased the Galilean. Everyone should have a home—a decent, safe, and sanitary place to come home to after a day’s work. In recent history, a share of the population believes that the worker at a plant should deserve the same domestic solace, albeit not as opulent, as its corporate owner. Others believe that the poor, yes, the ones that Luke mentioned, can contaminated “decent” folks like some unmanageable virus. They advocate having the service workers, teachers, and tradesmen motor into their city, service the needs of the rich, and leave by sundown, to hell with the traffic it requires.

It forms a struggle based as much on religious strictures as fact-based ones. That’s why it weighs so heavy on my heart to read where the president of the United States of American told families in the suburbs that they would “no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low-income housing in their neighborhood” if he remains in office. 

If that vow crushed my heart, think how the Galilean must feel.

The poor will find a place to live.

Divide and Conquer

Sometimes Americans have a hard time understanding one another. I fear that social-media makes it worse and may lead to our downfall if we don't change our ways.

For example, I wish those among us who are liberal and progressive in their thinking (more in tune with the man from Galilee than with Ayn Rand, it is true), would consider the following.

There are brothers and sisters among us who, if asked, would say, "I've always tried to do right as a citizen of this great country. I obeyed my parents and showed appreciation for having been provided a stable home environment. I never embarrassed anyone. I may have bitched, but I've always paid my taxes in full and on time.

"I obtained an education. I served in the armed forces. I went to work and have remained employed for my entire adult life. I've never been arrested and am considered a solid member of the community. I've never looted, stole, robbed, or caused massive traffic jams while I protested what I perceived as injustice, thus alienating the guilty and innocent alike.

"I only blame others for my troubles when I perceive that they are taking my taxes in order to live large, free of work and worry at my expense.

"Now, I'm considered a deplorable citizen of some in our country because I have little patience with those I see who haven't done right and who depend, it appears to me, on governmental largess as opposed to individual initiative and hard work. You may say that my attitude enables the unworthy to gain elected office. I say I am looking out for my own."

Yes, one might observe a lack of thoughtful contemplation that would lead to one's understanding that not all people are equally enabled. These include children fathered by men who face little consequences in generating children with no intention of providing their care, and who face little stricture for such neglect within a male-dominated hegemony.

It includes the women, some who are ill-prepared for the trials, who must care for the abandoned children while struggling for a success that came so easily for me, a white male of European ancestry.

It includes the babies bred and fed into a society that increasingly cares little for their fate. I think of the secretary with whom I worked once whose husband kicked her and their two-year-old child into the street one evening so he could bring his new girlfriend over. A male judge awarded her a  child-support payment that was $12 less than the monthly cost of a day-care center.

The ex-husband's new girlfriend was from a rich family that owned stables. After "visitation weekends" the child would return home all aglow, asking his mother why they couldn't buy a horse.

It includes my brothers and sisters who served in the same war I, but weren't allow to return, marry, find a good job, and buy a home in a stable neighborhood, as was I.

Our differences lie not in morality, it seems to me, but in levels of understanding and empathy. The demands required for a successful life don't always allow time for reflection upon the conditions of others. So we misunderstand one another, blame one another, and avoid one another, except through the anonymity of Facebook or Twitter.

Unfortunately, there are politicians who eschew such misunderstanding, preferring to utilize our mutual disaffection for their evil purposes. Social media is proving to be their most effective tool in modern times. As they attract moderates such as the one quoted above, they secretly muster in the worst dredges of society, forming a coalition that appears more and more to be unstoppable. Fox News, for reasons known only to its owners, joyfully promotes distrust and deceit.

Deceitful men like Franklin Graham use perverted religious thought to separate us into groups who would despise one another for no reason whatsoever.

Divide and conquer has been a strategy for destruction since we left the savanna. It's best antidote is to, at the risk of sounding maudlin, unite, respect, and love.

May we all hope for better understanding.