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America’s Disservice
December 1, 2009 | Comments Off on America’s Disservice
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit this community organization meeting called “City Life.” City Life is a grassroots organization in Boston that seeks to fight inequality by organizing poor and working class people in order to promote individual empowerment and build collective power. Because of the financial crisis, the main goal of these meetings is to educate people about their rights when facing foreclosure and evictions, and also to give them access to legal representation.
A few thoughts from the meeting:
Not having housing is a real problem that real people face. From the news, we know that millions of Americans are without health care, and that increasingly, Americans are without jobs. But just seeing the 40 or so people in that City Life meeting seeking out information and help that could potentially keep them in their homes really struck a chord with me. We all need shelter, and these people were about to lose it. I can’t think of anything more more fundamental to life than having a stable place to live.
Indeed, housing is fundamental to the American Dream. I’d be willing to bet that most people, at least in my generation, take for granted the fact that they have a roof over their heads. The people in that City Life meeting were being threatened by forces much more powerful than them (like banks) to get out of their homes or apartments. Luckily, the law is a powerful thing. But when people consistently don’t have the information and tools necessary to legally fight for their rights to stay in their homes, America is doing them a huge disservice. Probably an injustice.
City Life is fighting against that injustice.