The lights remain off in New York City. The poor, as always, find a way to manage. The rich, the wealthy, those with credit cards and steady jobs, can stay in hotels or find a way to remain safely at home.
The suburbanites want to fight and complain about not having gas.
The poor, those who are predominantly black and brown in a city whose class divides were laid bare by Super Storm Sandy, cannot use electronic bank transfer cards (otherwise known as food stamps) to eat. There are no riots. People soldier on and try to help each other.
The dreams of the White Right in which black and brown people, the poor, and those others who have been left behind by a massive transfer of wealth and income upwards to the top 1 percent while the middle class dies on the vine, and the underclass remains forgotten and ignored, remain unfulfilled.
There are no opportunities (yet) for the White Right, Free Republic, Tea Party GOP base of former Reagan Democrats, angry white men, and gun nut extremists, to go on their shooting sprees where they hunt down "Minority Urban Youths" for sport. I guess many of them are either stuck out on Long Island, Jersey, or Queens where they are fighting each other over gasoline.
This has not stopped some of the fantasy hate mongers on the Right from focusing on a few cases of obligatory knucklehead behavior--which can in turn be exaggerated into tales of rampaging mobs of black looters. The political onanism of the White Right is always on display for those willing to stomach their exhibitionist behavior.
This story about 87 year old Margaret Maynard reminds me of the conversations I have accidentally overheard between my mother and her friends.
You have to smile...and be glad that some folks are reaching out to help the most vulnerable among us. But again, the poor are the proverbial miner's canary. In a cashless society, where most people are dependent on electronic debit cards, bank cards, or other devices for monetary exchange, they too are out of the loop when the power goes out. I would imagine only a few have cash monies on hand, hidden at home, in an envelope under the bed, or safely in a can located in the freezer for safe keeping.
Question: who will break first? Those who are already used to doing with less? Or those entitled, comfortable, and well-resourced, living in the exurbs (or in exclusive zip codes in the city) who have little tolerance--or coping skills--for dealing with life's difficulties, however minor?