"There will be no more low-income housing forced into the suburbs." That was one of President Trump's Tweets. I watched on YouTube as he told his cheering audience in Johnstown, Pennsylvania...."So women....would you please like me....I saved your damned neighborhood OK.....we saved suburbia in the U.S.....you damn well better vote for me Pennsylvania."
I would ask the Christian reader to think about those statements....to place them on the grid of your faith. They played well....these type of dog-whistles....but had we even realized what he was saying? He was telling us that low-income families....code for minorities....would be kept out of our neighborhoods. I heard of no evangelical preacher who called him to task for that which was genuine racism.
I may be a little more sensitive on this issue than others because I benefitted from growing up in an all-white community....I had that coupon....and redeemed it. We didn't have any money....and by all rights my mother should have been forced to find an apartment in one of the more urban communities that surrounded us....but God planted me on a street...not even a quarter mile long....where three of my friends went on to be PHD university professors....and the others went on to post-graduate degrees. I couldn't help being dragged along....even though I tried.
We look down upon low-income people for spending so much of their income on smart phones and cable television and lotto tickets....even though Wall Street is our lotto game....but as I posted back in 2020....."How do the lyrics of the song hit go....."We built this city.....we built this city on rock and roll?" Well we built these cities....and profited as they grew. We partook of the entertainments...." We bought our toys with our disposable income....while many grew rich selling them to us....but sold them also to people who used their food and rent money....and fixed-income money. Well we are today paying the piper....for...."we never looked back to see what was happening to those left behind....who were drowning in this quest for fake happiness."
I posted this also during the campaign...."We have 401s with hundreds of thousands in the bank....bare minimum....and no mortgage....on a home that we own.....or if we are younger we are certainly on our way there....and they have a couple of thousand in the bank at best....and we cannot understand why they....are not happy....and don't make wise decisions."
The answer is not in redistribution of wealth....for as I also posted...."The problem is not in what we have.....but in what we value. I would much rather live in a row house....with good neighbors.....in a community of love.....than a million dollar home right on the beach....where my safety and happiness depended upon the stock market and keeping the lower class in their cities....The only answer to our problems is in Jesus."
