After The Gold Rush

“…and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

History tells us that the bubble will burst, as it’s done before. A cold wind will come with a speed and power which “no one could have predicted.”

The radio waves, inter-webs, and our “leaders” will tell us that it’s just a bump in the road, and that it’s somehow the fault of greedy school teachers, firemen, poor folks, and pensioners.

Tiffany Childress and Amanda Jennings restock the Little Free Pantry in the parking lot of the Lexington Park Library, in Lexington Park, Md. : Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson. (June, 2019)

We’ve seen this movie before, but surely on a plane or in a hotel room for background noise, because this is not the type of movie one chooses to watch voluntarily with popcorn and all.

As Woody Guthrie once wrote, “Like dope. Like whiskey. Like tobacco…Like morphine or opium or old smoke or some kind. They got the regular habit of taking us for damned old silly fools.”

Hold on tight, everyone. Stay safe and well.

#workingpoor #COVID #Recession #Homeless #TheVenusProject #Unemployment