I'm one of those night owls, never able to sleep much before dawn starts breaking. So tonight, I was wandering through the news at Google, and look what I found.
City figures show that in 2006, one-fifth of New Yorkers age 65 and older lived in poverty, twice the national average. Advocacy groups say by now it is closer to one-third, and New York is second only to Detroit among major U.S. cities in its rate of poverty among the elderly.
Moreover, the federal poverty guidelines for 2008, $10,400 for a single person and $14,000 for a couple, are so low that many who are in need do not qualify for most public benefits.
Minorities tend to fare worst, with 30 percent of Hispanic, 29 percent of Asian and 20 percent of elderly blacks in poverty compared with 13 percent of elderly whites in New York City.
Those figures come from this article, and I have no reason to doubt them.
I live in an upstate city, where our last major manufacturing plant, New Process Gear, is closing. New Process Gear made transmissions for the SUV. It was owned by Chrysler, then DaimlerChrysler, and then it was sold to a Canadian company, Magna. The final blow came in contract "negotiations" - the company said take $13/hour or we are closing. And the UAW of my city, ever proud, said "Close it". So the plant is closing. And this UAW local will gradually wind down as well.
I keep hearing Springsteen sing that these jobs are going, and they are not coming back. It's been coming on for awhile - we lost Carrier, Miller Brewing, and now New Process Gear. Too many closings, too many jobs lost, I'm beginning to wonder who will be left to turn out the lights.
Yet, we who brave ridiculous winters (we are on track for 200 inches of snow this season) so that we can enjoy such glorious summers, we who celebrate a sunlit afternoon because spring is on the way, we just don't give up. I look at those statistics and I remember my mother, who told me all about the Great Depression. So hard times are upon us again.
But, like her, I am incredibly stubborn and hopelessly optimistic. So I will be patient and steadfast. When confronted with this kind of adversity, what else can you do?