Impecunious

[mntleo2]

I listened to James Carse this morning on the Net give a lecture. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-962221125884493114. James P. Carse is a retired NYU professor who wrote a profound book you can read in about 3 hours called, Finite And Infinite Games. Against the war, as well as one who says our country is on the wane unless the ones in power stop playing finite games and begin to play infinite ones instead, Carse was asked by someone in his audience what this country could do to fix this insistance for the finite rather than the infinite. He suggested that we need poets because it is the poets of all times and all cultures, from Thomas Jefferson to Plato to even bin Laden, who inspire change far more than war ever could.

So, Professor Carse inspired me to write the following poem as a woman of lifelong poverty and for many of whom I know and admire for their courage, hard work, and integrity even though we are considered "waste people". I cannot tell you how much I love their caustic, wise and often hilarious views of the people in power who parade back and forth across our lives, our teevee screens and even tramp through our souls while pretending they "care" so much. Because I love these "waste people" value them, I mourn the fact that our society even sees us as that, but know the truth is they do, even though these attitudes actually imperil us all:

impecunious: im·pe·cu·ni·ous /ˌɪmpɪˈkyuniəs/ (im-pi-kyoo-nee-uhs)

having little or no money; penniless; poor.

Impecunious

I raise my fist marveling
At the rotting light of my country
My rage lying like a kundalini snake
At the base of the spine
Ready to strike suddenly
Upwards into my soul
Wondering why it is
That a penniless woman who
Picks up her baby
In the middle of the night
Is considered nothing,
When some woman once
Picked us all up, crooning
And drying our
Confused and agonized
Baby tears
And no one asks why it is that the poor
Who make others rich are “waste people”
Whose only crime is … because
They struggle for nothing tangible?

Yet the rich only have tangible nothings,
Merely airborne words
Flying through the Ethernet
And far more valued than any
Of God’s children, when truly
The only value is whatever they give it …
Like their diamonds, in reality nothing
But a shiny stone, not so rare
Not that precious, also hoarded by few
Full of the ambitious intent to
Hoard even more while right
Under avaricious and clouded eyes
Children they refuse to claim toil for them
Whose fathers endlessly detonate one another
While another woman lying in
The bloody mud
Rises in the middle of her troubled sleep
To pick up her wailing infant
Feeling that kundalini snake’s rattle
Hissing and rising up, ready to strike

May 4th 2008, Catherine Sullivan

Love
Cat In Seattle

[mntleo2]

1. Poverty = Incuriosity Unfortunately

[maryf]

3. fantastic

I love your poem! The images are strong and clear, thanks so much for sharing: I'm sharing with some friends of mine, hope thats ok! Thanks in advance! Fear is more likely than incuriousity, very sadly, keep writing, you're bound to change minds with those words! :yourock:

[bobbolink]

4. "Fear is more likely than incuriousity" Lack of empathy is ever more likely.

I think USians have lost ability to feel, which means they have no capacity for compassion, which means "to feel with".

In short, we've lost our spirit, our soul.

[maryf]

7. the opposite of love

is fear, not hate I believe, but You are right, Bobbie, empathy does require that one places oneself in another's shoes, and when one can't face their own inner visions of what pain is like, one's soul is gone, or buried anyway. I'd rather have my soul than any diamonds...I'd rather read Cat's poem than spout about the non-differences between candidates...

[bobbolink]

8. Actually, according to the famous writer Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is indifference.

The Perils of Indifference... Elie Wiesel...

It is definitely deadly!

And, I think it's what we're dealing with.

:cry:

[maryf]

10. Indifferent

or numb, some shaking and waking needs to be done, and a good shot of courage like yours to some would help, again keep writing and standing up for the poor. I'll check out that Wiesel piece, thanks!! :)

[bobbolink]

13. I believe that speech is on the web.. the audio version also. It was a speech at the invitation of

Bill Clinton, I believe.

Too bad Clinton didn't pay attention to the words!

:cry:

Good to see you again, Mary. Get that post count up! ^_^

[bobbolink]

14. I think you need only about 5 more posts.

That should do it.

:hi:

:hug:

[bobbolink]

2. Beautiful, Cat!! You ask all the right questions. Sadly, they aren't the questions the

"mainstream" Dems want to be bothered with!

Waste people.

Useless eaters.

Throwaways.

:cry:

[maryf]

5. "whatsover you do unto the least of my brethern

you do unto me..." Maybe folks ought to remember those words...

[bobbolink]

6. I just about wanted to cram that down some "church people's" throats this morning!!

I'm at the end of my rope, dealing with people who want to know why I'm homeless. They don't really want to know, they want to 'fix" me, like I'm a stooooooooooopid ignoramus.

Mostly, they want to run me out of town. So, what I'm itching to say to the next person who dumps that on me.. "You know, when I read Matthew 25, I missed that part where is says, 'I was homeless and you told me to get out of town.'"

:argh:

Good to see you again, Mary!

:hug:

[maryf]

9. You know it

and hang in there! You are important to many more than you may know! Keep speaking your truth, you're an inspiration! And I hope this wonderful poet keeps writing too! :loveya:

[mntleo2]

11. Boy, don't I know about the "fixing" syndrome ...

...I think the reason that bugs me so much is that the "hidden" message is that somehow my poverty is all my fault. It is all about "bad" choices, doncha know and therefore the broken safety net is so tattered, crime becomes the only way to survive sometimes. I keep asking them to do the "Paris Hilton" test and THEN ask me again if they can "fix" much if anything without resources and financial support. While I use a young woman here, I would also create a similar situation for an older women who has raised her family, worked all her adult life but now finds herself in bad health and without resources because she spent her life providing for everyone else.

Here is the Paris Hilton" test:

Paris Hilton finds out that she is pregnant by her rich boyfriend. Because their families disapprove of abortion, they marry. She has the baby and all is well for a couple months. But then Hubby starts coming home drunk and high. He uses cocaine openly on their front room table and snarls at her if she disapproves. While intoxicated, he becomes very verbally abusive and demeaning to her. One day because he had demanded sex, she began to cry and tried to tell him she was too tired because she had been up all night with the baby. So he backhanded her across the face and throws her on the bed and rapes her. She tells her family the bruises and black eyes she has are because of her clumsiness and her husband chimes in with "funny" stories about how silly looking she was the day before. Everyone laughs at her stupidity, assuming it was her fault and she notices the satisfied look on Hubby's face as if he had been exonerated. A few months later, she finds out that his drug habit was using most of their income and that he had gambled their fortune away. The mortgage came due and the bill collectors start calling. So she goes out and gets a job at the local WalMart for minimum wage, but it is not enough to pay the bills. When she comes home tired from work, her husband, who says he is "too tired" to look for work, demands that she cook him his dinner, and, "look at this house, it's a pig sty! Get up off your lazy ass and clean this up!" She finds out that, while she is at work, he is seeing one of the bimbos he hangs out with and has gotten HER pregnant as well.

Two scenarios from here ...

Scenario #1. Mommy and Daddy step in and save her and the baby and she divorces her loser husband. She moves in with them in their palatial home and they help her go to school. They buy her a new car and hire a nanny for her baby so she can do her studies and stay late at the library when she needs to. She works as best as she can, but she is not that smart and does not do that well in school, still she graduates. They already have maids and cooks so Paris does not have to worry about housework or dinner preparations. When she graduates, Mommy finds Paris a high paying job with one of her friends. Paris is able to eventually move out to a new home that her parents put a down payment on. Even though she graduated lowest in her class, she is able to more than provide for her child and herself.

Scenerio #2. Because the husband has gambled all their fortune away, they are soon penniless. Her husband cries and apologizes for his wayward behavior and promises to do better. The girlfriend has had an abortion and has gone on to another boyfriend. Paris and Hubby move into a housing project where they were immediately burglarized the week they moved in so they no longer have a working television and all their bedding and linens are stolen as well as a week's worth of meat and canned goods. They cannot afford a phone and Paris spent what she had saved buying diapers, formula for the baby, and food. When Paris comes home to find Hubby drunk again, she tells him she cannot take any more. Hubby pushes her up against the wall and squeezes her throat threatening to kill Paris if she tries to leave him. He begins to monitor her phone calls and demanded to know where she is every second she is away. He also demands her paychecks because he says she is not smart enough to handle the finances and that it was all her fault the lights were about to be turned off and they have no phone. She tried to open a checking account in only her name but he beat the daylights out of her and accused her of having an affair. Then he dangled the baby in front of her with a burning cigarette and threatened to burn the child if she did not give him more money. She managed to escape one evening with the baby while her husband lay in a drugged stupor, with a few diapers, and her work uniform. She found a shelter that allowed her to stay for a couple weeks and then moved in with her sister Nicole who resented the intrusion. Hubby was arrested for domestic violence and while being arrested they found cocaine in his possession so that charge was added as well. With a 15 year sentence, Paris has no hope of seeing child support ever. Paris' income barely covered the cost of childcare, much less food. She did not have much left over to contribute to the mortgage on Nicole's mansion. Nicole resented Paris for "freeloading" because Paris could not pay half of the mortgage. Even though Paris replaced one of the maids and did the work herself to make up for it. That sort of worked until Nicole's boyfriend hit on Paris so Nicole threw Paris and the baby out of her house. She blamed Paris for the boyfriend's drunken groping when Paris was in reality trying to get away, seeing another situation like she had just escaped. Paris is forced to go on welfare when she loses her job for being late because she no longer had a way to get her baby to childcare, and to her job because she had no car and no money for the bus, much less a home.

Here is what I would ask those church people ...

Was Paris' choice "bad" to keep her baby and marry the father?

Is Paris' fabulous success in situation #1 all her doing ~ or what sorts of help did she get that contributed to that success?

In situation #2, is Paris' failure all her fault? If you could fix Paris' situation, how would you do it without financial resources such as help with schooling, childcare and housing? Is Paris' low pay her fault? How would you suggest she get a better paying job in a depressed economy and few opportunities? If Paris was Black, would this improve her situation?

The truth about Paris' situation is that #1 is with family support that included financial, schooling and a job, #2 it without much financial support, no schooling, no childcare and the message in #2 is, "you are on your own ..."

NOW how would you "fix" Paris in #2? Since Paris started out rich, would you say her eventual poverty was all her fault for being poor? NOW could you say PERHAPS it is because we need a safety net to help people or as you say, what part of "What you do to the least ot these, you do to Me" don't you get???

Finally, how many people are in the same situation as Paris Hilton?

My 2 cents

Love
Cat In Seattle

[bobbolink]

12. Of course we know our poverty is OUR fault! It couldn't possibly have anything to do with

those wonderful, perfect, "progressives", right???

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with a woman who I've known for quite a while. She even gave me a story for my project, about the "help" agency she worked for, and how the staff took donations and used them for themselves, and little of it actually got to people like me.

So, clearly, she has some awareness and compassion, right?

Well, she kept drilling me about what my "plan" is... what am I going to do????

I kept sweetly telling her that we didn't have much time, that it was a long story, and that we needed to use our time to finish our project.

That didn't stop her... she kept pressing me. Finally I said, "I'll go out and build a house, OK?"

I mean, really. What the hell do these people think?

And, yet, when I tried to educate her about how BAD the situation is, that there is a HUGE deficit of low-income housing, she rolled her eyes.

SHE ACTUALLY ROLLED HER EYES!

How's that for a caring liberal attitude?

She didn't want to know the truth, she doesn't want to know that SHE needs to "do something", she just wants me to shoulder it all, with all my powerlessness, and make it all better.

Or get out of town, preferably.

It reminds me of when my son was with my parents, and he was kidnapped when he was with them. They found out they couldn't do anything about it.. the police wouldn't take action.

SO, they came at me to "fix it". They needed ME to make it all better, so they wouldn't feel bad.

When I couldn't... when there was nothing I could do, they stopped talking to me.

Yup, they had nothing to do with me, because I couldn't fix what happened on their watch.

THAT's the attitude we're dealing with here.

Sheer evil!

[mntleo2]

16. Here is my plan:

1. Change the entire safety net system so that is actually helps people
2. Lower the cost of high rents
3. Shelter for all homeless, because the cost of rent is too much
4. Ensure that all Americans have medical care

Not necessarily in that order ...

Require the "Bernie Whitebear Method". Bernie was a leader here in Seattle for Native Americans. Since my kids are partially NA (not from this area though) I was a parent in his HeadStart program. He used to say in meetings that he had *no* problem with anybody complaining or showing where there were problems. However he required that if these things were raised then the complainer/problem pointer-outer also follow their words with a suggestion as to what they thought could be done about it. Then also their commitment as to what THEY could do about it ...

I am telling you the Bernie Whitebear Method worked for me. Every time I opened my mouth to complain I had to shut it until I could also consider what could be done about it and further what I could do about it. You find out that, if the problem was something say, only a "powers that be" person could fix, I realized that writing a letter, having a meeting, getting other parents concerned about the same problem together for a group effort, helped. If there was no solution, then I had to say that, but I also had to say what I thought about that COULD help. I will say that to this day I have Bernie Whitebear to thank because now, every time I open my mouth I have to also consider what could be done about it as well as what can I do about it?

If this woman believes you need a plan perhaps you could also "sweetly" tell her about Bernie Whitebear and ask her what SHE thinks should be done about the above. Since you are already tangled in the problems, you are already trying to find solutions. What can she do to help the above???

Love
Cat In Seattle

[bobbolink]

17. Actually, I did ask her that. No reply, of course.

As for your #3, we MUST stop talking about more shelter!

There are already PLENTY of shelters..... that doesn't do anything positive.

What is needed is HOUSING.

We must stop repeating the same shelter mantra.

Why should I, a 62-year-old woman, spend the rest of my life bouncing from shelter to shelter, because that's the approved solution?

[mntleo2]

18. Good point and what I meant

... was`housing and yes, shelters do little good.

Cat

[bobbolink]

15. appropriate quote from Scott Peck on this.

From the Different Drum:

p. 61 Community is and must be inclusive. The great enemy of community is exclusivity. Groups that exclude others because they are poor or doubters or divorced or sinners or of some different race or nationality are not communities; they are cliques--actually defensive bastions against community.

At least *he* remembers us.. and at the first of the list, which is highly unusual.