Trying to follow

My wife had this brilliant thought the other day (this occurs most days, the really brilliance is when my brain stays focused long enough to remember it): “If the government is just giving away money with this Economic Stimulus package thing, then why not at least give it to the people it was once promised to.” Brilliant.

Okay, so I know it’s a little late for the suggestion, but it’s worth dreaming about. The government is giving $600 to every person who made over $3000 and filed their taxes this year. Now, I don’t think it would right years of slavery and oppression, but it seems like it would be a small gesture in the right direction.

I believe the Economic Stimulus is a $168 billion bill, and at the 2005 census there were 40 million Black and Native People’s living in the USA. If you just split the money that way you’d have $4200 per person, and that included children.

It’s a shame that the term, “40 Acres and a Mule“, instead of being a honest attempt to right the terrible injustices of our history, is just one more indication of how the people of this country have been oppressed and mistreated. It was another unkept promise, one of many from the past and just another of the many to this day. I know this one might spark some controversy too, but I had to throw it out there.

I posted on the topic of foreclosures early this week, mostly with a brainstorm idea on what I think could help remedy some of the problems low income neighborhoods face. It was met with some thought provoking challenges, that I’m trying to consider. That being said, I would love to read if anyone has written or read other posts about Foreclosures, the housing crisis, and particularly what the role of the church and/or us as individuals should be in the midst of this. Any ideas?
If so add them to the list below, just post the URL (and your name or the name of the article) below…

And feel free to comment below or above with anything else you think I should read.

A month or so ago, while browsing the blog of one of the amazing writers for Geez Magazine (which I’ll be reviewing on Saturday), Chris Cocca, I learned about a site called 6 Sentences. The site basically contains stories that are six sentences long, and they are quite good. Anyways, it seemed like an excellent writing exercise to help improve me writing abilities, so I gave it a shot. I’m going to try this or something similar (maybe some spoken word) at least once a week, and I just might post it. Here’s my first story.

Triumphal Entry

She sat on the kitchen counter in faded jeans and a plain white undershirt, her hair pulled back in an unassuming ponytail, her knees pulled up to her chest, a few tears trickling down her cheek. He leaned back and took another swig of milk, straight from the carton, trying to let her words settle in. She’d fully expected him to hit her, not because he’d ever been physically aggressive before, but her story was so outlandish, she’d imagined only the worst. “Was it James…” He questioned out loud, partially to himself, but also giving her a chance to come clean, “Matt, maybe?” Her tears came down again, hard now, she hadn’t expected him to believe her impossible story, she almost wished the truth was as simple as he thought, but her heart still broke as his questioning gave indication that her hopes for the future were quickly slipping away. It was over, before it had even begun, and all that awaited her now was a life as an outcast, whispered about at the market, ostracized by her community, left alone to raise her child, that bastard child.

Read the rest of this entry »

Water of Life, Haiti Water Project video

Union Station Freeze for Peace (sort of a take off of Improv Everywhere)

The Stress of War (related to my PTSD post on Friday)

And here are some ultimate frisbee highlights since I was watching a tournament this weekend (not from the tournament though)

Okay, this isn’t necessarily my solution, just the most recent thing I’ve come up with, but it would take a LOT of effort for it to happen, and there are probably a great many problems to it as well (my more conservative brethren can speak up now). But, here’s my idea.
I think urban centers that have experienced the negative affects of absentee landlords (many slum lords) and now the recent foreclosure crisis, should make homesteading mandatory in those neighborhoods. What homesteading means is that a home must be owner occupied, they must live there. I slightly looser option would be that all owners of property in that zip code or neighborhood must live in the same neighborhood. Basically, this would mean you can only own property in the neighborhood if you lived in the neighborhood.
One of the primary things I believe this will do is create a vested interest in the community. Many of our problems today from slum lords to sweatshops exist because we are able to distance ourselves from the injustices we often passively (or actively) contribute to and participate in. Requiring all owners of pieces of a community to actually be a part of that community would create geographic proximity that would build awareness and sensitivity to the problems within that community.
As it relates to the foreclosure problems currently, it would force banks to liquidate the properties in a community, rather than being able to sit on vacant houses in hopes of riding out the low parts of the real estate trend. And, those properties would then be available to people who are interested in living in that particular community and not a wealthy investor who is interested in the bottom line rather then the interest of the people in the community. This would more then likely drop the value of the property in a neighborhood considerably, since those interested in purchasing and living in the neighborhood might not have the financial means to offer what the previous market values might have been. However, the benefits of increased homeownership in a community, vested interest, and the possibility for individuals to build equity would far outweigh the loss in property value.
It seems this sort of thing has been done in a few cities before, but the goal was more for a sort of ‘urban renewal’ that brought middle and upper class folks back into cities. It in effect pushed the people of the neighborhood out and basically gentrified the neighborhood to the degree that the original people of the community were no longer there. I think efforts toward this sort of required homesteading would need to be done sooner in a city facing a lot of abandon and foreclosed houses, so that the original community isn’t displaced.

I haven’t thought through all the ins and outs but it seems like, with the right planning, it could be a very beneficial solution to many urban neighborhoods.