Throughout mainstream media there are many reports on the recent economic downturn, usually with statistics and broad descriptions, often colored with reassurances that the economy is improving. Even in alternative media one rarely finds descriptions of the suffering people actually experience. When I see and read all these reports, I often wonder how people are actually coping, what it is like to face extended periods of unemployment, about all the tensions that tear at the fabric of families and communities, how it feels to face foreclosure and being homeless. This gifted writer gives us some of the raw human experience behind these sterile mainstream media reports.
These things, these events leave scars and marks that Tide won't wash off. Like a death or a divorce, you carry them with you internally from then on. With upwards of ten million home foreclosures and maybe as many evictions it means that nearly of a third of our population has been displaced and scarred. A huge army of men, women and children whose lives have been disrupted and destabilized, who fear answering the telephone or the arrival of a stranger's car. The mail makes them queasy and the end of the month makes them nervous and jumpy.