David Ambrose became homeless in New York City. His childhood was violent, hungry and terrible. He wrote about it in a 2022 memoir, “Home called A Place”, which was very beautiful and brave and heartbreaking.
“As a child, if I died and my family died, no one would care,” Ambrose told me at that time. “We were invisible. We were out of our hands, covered with our hands, covered in wounds, covered in dirt, hungry. And you, America did not choose to see us. ,
I thought about him when the news came that President Donald Trump went to freeze dollars trillions in federal expenses, throwing food on wheels, school lunch, head start, snap (supplementary nutrition aid program) and other programs that millions of Americans Support of chaos. The White House then canceled the order, which was already blocked by a federal judge, showing an initial glimpse to what could happen in the next four years.
As confusion ruled and the agencies scrambled and the state officials found themselves out of portals to reach the Medicid Funds, the White House Office of Management and the budget released a memo:
“If the agencies are worried that these programs may vest the executive orders of the President, they should consult OMB to open these objectionable policies without a stagnation in payment.”
Just consult OMB to open objectionable policies! Easy peas!
My mind explained the embroidery, patiently, flew into his 2022 book talks, why his mother did not use some of some programs available to help him and his family get out of poverty.
Have you ever called the cable company, it was surprised, and jumped around and was rapidly disappointed and eventually left when the third or fourth person still did not solve your outage/ Was determined/Set up your problem?
Of course we all had.
Now imagine that you were calling from a phone phone. In a homeless shelter. With a line of people waiting. And your hungry, scared children were crying next to you. Only you were not calling about the cable.
I am afraid that we are entering a chapter where the notion of rugged individualism, although flawed and inconsistent, ruins the day – to shape policies and practices and public discourse to an extent that we have not yet experienced Has done Where the belief is that we are all born with bootstrap and have the ability to pull ourselves. Where help is needed that loser is for loser and providing it is for suckers. Where every man is an island, or a plan of one with at least one money that he will save after finishing the property tax.
Where America, in other words, does not choose to see families such as Ambrose – except what happens when you do not take good decisions or do not do the right paperwork.
All of which ignore incredible fate and privilege of being born in a functional family, which has a safe place to live and much to eat. Of which disconnects all and divides us into those vs. All of which prevent our leaders from taking care of those at least those of us, until they are most of us side by those.
All of which loot us the possibility and possibility of the country where we nourish and support and heal as many humans as possible, knowing that we all talent, thoughts, contributions, minds , The hearts will be benefited as a result. To know that fed is a human right.
And all of which come at a time when we are already so isolated. There are so many places and methods that we used to gather in the community, shrinking. The presence of religious services has dramatically declined. Formal voluntary and organizational membership is continuously falling in states every year. According to the recent Atlantic piece, Americans spend less time with others than any other period.
All of which make us easy to divide.
I don’t think we are designed. Human beings are social animals. All are creatures – at least those who tolerate.
I have parents who taught me to tune in nature for signs for co -existence from an early age. The trees are a wonderful example, and I found myself returning to a Refresher of German Forester Peter Wohleben in a 2018 Smithsonian magazine profile this week. (Stay with me.)
“Since Darwin,” the author, Richard Grant explained, “We have generally thought about trees that they try, bite the virgin, compete for water, nutrients and sunlight, the winners The loser shades and sucking them drought.
But science, Grant wrote, shows us something different: tree species that form aligned with other tree species. The forests that act like communities use their root systems to share intelligence and livelihood and survival tips.
“Some are calling it ‘Wood-Wide Web’,” Wohleben told Grant. “All trees here, and in every forest which are not very damaged, are connected to each other through underground fungi networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the network, and also use them to communicate. They send signs of crisis about drought and illness, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees change their behavior when they receive these messages. ,
I think this is important. I think we do the best work. Not alone, ruthless shock. But as members of an ecosystem, which is larger than any of us, but also depends – our cooperation and anxiety and every one of us, very much on anxiety and care for each one.