Extra Credit-Someplace Like America

Someplace Like America Tale From The New Great Depression is a chilling and haunting look at America. No matter what city or part of the county you may be in, you will find desperation and loss of hope. How is it that our past is the same as our future? Why haven’t we done anything to change it? Actually, why hasn’t the government put more money in us? We are a nation of starving people. Our government chooses to send food to other countries. Don’t we matter anymore?

For thirty years, the author, Dale Maharide and photographer, Michael S. Williamson took a deep step inside the real people of America. There is no sugar coating the words and the pictures. It is real. The steel factory in Youngstown shutting down and hundreds of hard working people lost their jobs. No longer can they pay their mortgage, heat their home or feed their children. Good people lose their homes due to foreclosures….where do they go? Where was our government when these people needed the most help?

The banks made millions from the foreclosures and the people lost more than money. We lost our pride.

People have moved into tents for shelter. Tents. For a nation that is to help the poor and the suffering, I must say the nation sucks at helping. Children being raised in these tent cities. No yard to play in. No food to eat, unless it is a good day. Its really sad that the government does not construct more respectable housing for the poor. Just because one has lost their job, their home and their money it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to live in a home.

Sad, that people have to work two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water. Low wages attribute to this, as we all know. Jobs are so few. The jobs that usually are available are the minimum wages. How can a family survive on $7.25 an hour? We can’t. We are drowning so fast it may be to late to rescue us.

Reading Someplace…, really hit me hard. I find it so disturbing that so many Americans are without a home and food. So many can’t find work. Layoffs all around. Broken towns and broken people. We have to take a step forward together. Without each other this battle on the home front can not be won. We are resilient and we are strong. Nothing really can hold us down for too long. We overcome and we adapt to what is given to us.

Many cities across the countries have started community farms. How wonderful! A cheaper and healthier way for us to eat. It is great that communities that have been in ruins from empty homes to empty factories are trying to make a healthier and prettier community. The power of the people can change the rules and the powers. We have to unite as a community. We have to protect each other and ourselves.

What will the future hold for us if we don’t change? The depressions before us showed us. But now I fear the worse will happen. Many more Americans will be jobless, homeless, penniless. I worry for my children and their children. I hope that my future will be better. I hope getting a degree to teach the young will keep me secure. But, I don’t know. None of us do.