I didn't think my first diary back would be a rant, but I am totally depressed and frusturated right now. I went home sick from work this am and when I got home, everything was fine. I went to the doctor, and when I got back home, everything was crazy. The streets around my house were blocked off, the neighborhood was filled with
5-0, and the coppers were questioning everyone. I couldn't help them, b/c I'd missed the action, but I asked a neighbor what was going on since the police wouldn't tell me. I found out that someone killed a baby and left it in the bushes by the recycling center. My heart is aching for this poor little baby, and this travesty could have been prevented. Our social safety network is completely broken, and we need to demand social justice so little babies, troubled parents, and desparate people are no longer victims of the system.
A few months ago, in the city, a 20 year old woman brought her 3 children to the pier, stripped them naked, and threw them into the icy SF bay. They all died, only one body was recovered. It turns out the mother was a diagnosed schitzophrenic, who was also bi-polar. She is being tried for first degree murder. This woman was already a victim of the system: an uninsured woman of color with a debilitating, untreated illness. A 20 year ol mother of 6, 4, and 1 year old kids, with no support network or adequate services available to help her or her children. The DA is gunning for prison for this woman. Soon "the people" will send her off to one of our legal slave plantations where she recieves no help but gets to sew jeans or work in a call center for $.20/day...
These are stand out stories, but there are millions of Americans in dire circumstances that our government choses to ignore. For every tragedy that hits the news, a thousand more slip through the cracks. Worst of all, the background of the tragedies are always overlooked, or simply dismissed with the usual "there are evil people in this world" or the "world is a terrible place" excuses. It's funny how no one ever brings up how adequate, fully funded public health services could intervene and prevent most of these terrible events.
We have defunded our public health system, our education system, our welfare services, all to the great detriment of the general populace. Our only great public health successes were 1/2 a century ago (polio and TB vaccine and treatment programs) or are currently being decimated (Ryan White Care Act anyone?). We deny children opportunity by destroying public schooling, creating workfare (slave labor) programs that make it difficult for impoverished parents to meet the needs of their kids as well as the requirements for the meager benefits, and allow the Federal gov't to cut 300,000 families from food stamp programs. What happens to those adults? What happens to those children? What happens to the adults those children become?
We never look at things from the standpoint of prevention. This country loves band aid quick fixes. Sadly those fixes do nothing to attack the root causes of these serious problems.
What then? How do we prevent tragedies like these? Through equal access. Instill a single payer healthcare system where anyone and everyone who needs help has acess to it. Bring our public schools back to greatness and provide all children with opportunities to learn and grow.
Bring back FDR's social safety net that proects the most vulnerable in our society. Reject a government that servess it's own interest and restore power to the people.
While I don't know the story of how that poor little baby ended up at the recycling center, I do know this: "Normal" people don't go around killing babies and dumping them in random places. Desparate, unsound people do. And until we can meet the basic needs of every American and provide adequate support to them, this shit will continue to be common place. And to the baby: So sorry, little guy. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry all you knew of this life was the coldness, the contempt for life we are all subjected to. I'm sorry you did not get to experience the joy. We failed you as your fellow Americans. Go in peace, baby.