The Middle Distance

So I was walking to my bus route and back, and mentally wanting to put a Molotov cocktail through the window of everyone who couldn't be arsed to shovel or put down salt. Because you might think the ice on your stretch of sidewalk is no big deal. For yourself.

BUT...if you're clumsy and have no health insurance (cause you're underemployed and broke, as many of us are these days)--and are in the US;I'm ranting about Chicago people here--you know damn well that every chance you have of falling and hurting yourself might mean that your parents could lose their house if you wind up suddenly hospitalized. For us pedestrians, it's often safer to walk in the street than on the sidewalks, and even so we have to go slow and grope the iron fences.


Mostly, the worst offenders are yuppie condos. People who have garages right under their lofts, and so have no vested interest in the general communal life of the city, which involves WALKING.

Reuters article.

I was on food stamps for a while in the early 90s, during the FIRST Bush recession, when I had just graduated from college. My roommates at the time went in to the office together, submitted all our documentation, and even though we were all working, we still made so little money relative to our expenses that we qualified.

I was not ashamed. I refused to be ashamed. The idea that government food assistance is something to be ashamed of is a right-wing meme, and it is WRONG - most people who collect assistance of any kind ARE working. I worked full-time--hard, night hours--and still qualified. It was my EMPLOYER who should have been ashamed, not me.

And stop with the "taxpayer" meme too - even when I had that cheap-ass low-paying job, there was still state and federal income tax taken out of my paycheck. As there still is. And I'm fine with that! Assistance to the poor is a miniscule fraction of the federal budget compared to the military-industrial complex. I accept that we don't get to dictate where our tax money goes, but given my choice, I would SO much rather have my money go towards feeding people here than killing people overseas.

I just want to say, if you're one of the 1 in 8, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You have a right to help when you need it. Don't be afraid to ask - sustaining your life IS a worthy expenditure of taxpayers funds. You are worthy, and you deserve it.

And speaking of statistics, on this Memorial Day, 1 in 4 homeless people in America is a veteran.

the concept of "innocence" and why it's valued so much.

( Tell your kids this: Life is uncertain )

I don't get it. Why is "innocence" considered worthwhile? Isn't it just a sentimentalized version of ignorance? If I hadn't been aware of intense human suffering in childhood, would I have any sense of social conscience or empathy now? It ALL starts young, or it never happens at all, right? (Believe me, I've met people who never empathized with victims or knew poverty or tragedy as kids. I don't envy them and I wouldn't trust them as far as I could flick them with two fingers.)

Attention: Summer.


GET. THE. FUCK. OUT.

90F tomorrow? NOT acceptable.


Look, I know we've never gotten along. I've tolerated having my birthday stuck in the middle of you my whole life and I think I have generally been polite about it. But frankly, you've become especially loathesome lately: hot, muggy, rainless, and relentlessly too fucking bright. All that harsh yellow sunlight for weeks on end uninterrupted? NOT pretty. It's tacky, monotonous, dreary, and about as pleasant as a the visual equivalent of a car alarm that won't stop.

I can understand how you might be a little bit confused, because the Cubs are still playing (and still losing) but it is NOT July. It is October. You wore out your welcome in August. GO. AWAY.

No love,
Me.

PS: Weather gods - if you want to make it up to me, let's have lots of deep fluffy snow this year. I've been feeling pretty ripped off the last couple.