Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What will be changed forever

[Ron Ingram (ingramr88]

Reminds me of the parable that David Foster Wallace told in a speech
about two elder fish swimming along when a school of younger fish swim
by them. 'How's the water, boys?' The elder fish asked. to which The
younger fish replied, "Water? What's water?"

https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/


I think and hope the world will be changed for good. This virus simply
exposed a larger problem for all of us and has showed us how fragile
the whole system is.


Being accustomed to living in poverty has made some of us pretty much
recession proof. I dont know about many others so I can speak for
myself. We grew accustomed to having our churches and neighbors team
up to supply the community with food, WITHOUT BEING DECLARED a
501(c)3, WITHOUT GRANT MONEY. We did it because we had no other
choice......remember what the United States did to african americans
during the civil rights movement? How they tried to bomb our churches
because they couldnt figure out how the hell these people are still
marching and protesting after they burned their houses, shot them dead
in the street, turned the water hose on them, called the dogs out on
them, threw them in jail....they found out that even when well heeled
people, racist people and others tried to economically cut them
off/physically kill them/mentally traumatize them, they came together
as a community with the little they had....they found out that
churches were our bedrock and preceded to bomb them. I dont have to
recount the stories, we know of them. Im 31 years old. Some of yall on
this thread were in yall prime when all this was going down......

Look at what the U.S, did to Cuba. They cut them off economically,
leaving them to suffocate economically but in my opinion, thats one of
the best things that could have happened to Cuba. Research if for
yourself. I think they found out what true freedom was. You cant buy
freedom. The freedom thats sold in the form of capitalism is just a
cheesy knockoff.

I aint got no fancy census statistics or whatnot but I think that if
we dont get our act together, there will be mass unrest and possible
anarchy. Socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for everybody else
has run its course.

Even with a rent freeze and eviction moratorium, many of the homeless
who were without homes before are still without homes while EMPTY
VACANT BUILDINGS AND APARTMENTS JUST SIT EMPTY. Apartment vacancies
are down yet they are asking residents to renew lease for another year
with an additional $100-$200 increase in rent. ABSURD. And yall can
throw me in jail as a domestic terrorist for saying this but if this
is how we treat ppl and how we distribute basic needs such as shelter
then American is going to hell in a handbasket with gasoline draws on.

There is group in Oakland called the Reclaimers, they are taking
vacant homes owned by the city (please research this to be sure) and
moving homeless families into them.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/this-is-life-or-death-homeless-families-reclaim-vacant-homes-to-survive-virus-outbreak

 They also protect the families from mean housed people who harass
them from the comforts of their homes. the sheriff wont even come out
to evict. Remember the 1915 Rent strikes in Glasgow?

https://www.rs21.org.uk/2015/06/12/1915-glasgow-rent-strike-how-workers-fought-and-won-over-housing/

We can turn this around.WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES. I dont give two cents
about a stimulus check. I dont give a hoot about a loose pocket Fed
Reserve printing more money in this fiat system we got going on.
People with homes are afraid they will lose their homes just like what
happened in 2008 because of tax arrears. WE SAVE OURSELVES. If we dont
stand for something we will fall for anything. We save ourselves by
doing what the intentional co-housing community has done and is doing
-- being human, coming together and supplying each other regardless of
the money. There are some thrivers and survivors out there who know
what that means. Even under social distancing we can do this.

If I had an apartment building and by God, if I so happen to have a
sliver of a heart for humanity i would find a way to turn my building
into free intentional co housing.

If I owned any assets such as Old schools, old brick and mortar retail
stores I would get with a like-minded architect and figure out how to
turn these buildings into multi-unit homes to house ppl intentionally
for free.

I hope this did not offend anyone or come off as ranty. I love this
community of thinkers and humanitarians. and Yes, I am pushing the
envelope here. Yes, I am.

On 4/20/20, Brian Bartholomew via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> 
wrote:
>  > 'when we increase material lifestyle for the rich, we have also
>> decreased material lifestyle for the poor'
>
> Utterly untrue. Life is so much better today than it was 500 years
> ago, for the majority of people and for the poorest of the poor.
>
> https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/greatest-reduction-in-world-poverty-ever-in-history-isnt-free-trade-partly-responsible/
>
>  the 80% reduction in poverty between 1970 and 2006 has to be
>  the greatest reduction in world poverty in such a short time
>  span in the history of the world
>
> I suspect what Clark is calculating is the ratio of wealth of rich to
> poor (unequal distribution). Today there are large numbers of rock
> star celebrities jet-setting around, consuming large amounts of
> resources like only a small number of royalty used to. This is a
> totally separate question from, how much nutrition and medicine and
> shelter are the poorest of the poor getting (poverty).
>
> Brian
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
>


-- 
 Ron