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My great-uncle was gruff, had a sorted past, never once looked at me or said a kind word to me, but somehow I ended up with his diary. He wrote in his diary daily during the depression. 1) How long he stayed in line to work. 2) If he worked....
3) What he bought on the days he worked. It was usually potatoes, bread and an occasional apple or piece of meat....
One day he described why he got to work. It seems there was an understanding among the men standing in line, waiting for the promise of work....
They lined up according to need. Those with more children, were given places in the front of the long lines, and if they had enough food to carry their children over until the next day, they would move down the line allowing my childless uncle to stand in front of them....
He described the system in passing, without any judgement or emotion. He accepted it and supported it. I’m presuming he thought it as the right thing to do. I didn’t really know him when he was alive and honestly was kind of afraid of him. I avoided being around him and the cloud
...of smoke from his Camel cigarettes. I know if I had asked him about his experience during the depression he’d have told me very little. Not because he’d have to cough while trying to do it...
...but because he seemed to have taken it all in stride. That’s what men like him did. He would have been a little ashamed of his dire situation and wouldn’t think that much of how he stepped aside for men with ‘more mouths to feed’.
I thought of him today, when I watched Trump and members of his administration, belittle the dire financial situation of federal workers. It’s easy to think that since they are rich they don’t understand...
But today we saw Joe Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi, both wealthy, understand their plight. We saw Senator Bennet, son of an ambassador articulate better than anyone, the death and destruction that comes from man made financial chaos....
Why are so many Republican leaders unable to be empathetic? And why are those who vote for them able to look past it and only moved to a more Progressive position after *they* are personally impacted?
We really need to figure this out. <end>
Sordid*
