When two seemingly endless wars (and a potential pending one) involving US troops cannot get much meaningful coverage in the press, how can we expect to hear about issues within our own country and communities?
According to The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida is the least affordable city in the US, due in part to the astronomical costs of housing. In addition to a lack of affordable housing the very people that are supposed to help those in need - the Miami-Dade Housing Agency - have been so inept, corrupt, and simply useless that US Department of Housing and Urban Development is fighting the county to take over the agency. You can read The Herald's recent staggering series of articles on the whole pathetic mess for yourself. I highly suggest you read the whole thing. It's an honest glimpse at some of the realities of life in the US that exist below the shiny exterior.
Also read this article by Lisa Arthur from today's Herald
A shanty town in the middle of a major US city may be surprising for some. Remember that some of these people could be your colleagues at work, the person sitting next to you at the food court; could even be you one day.
If you click on the heading for this post, you can go directly to the accompanying slide show.
I cannot say it better than the Vietnam veteran at the end of the article, "This shantytown here is Miami's shame. And it is Dade County's shame. And it is America's shame. Right here and right now.''
I grew up in S. Florida. I still love some of what's left of it. The place I grew up is gone; buried under asphalt, concrete, greed, short-sightedness, and apathy. You don't have to be from Miami; this should make us all mad as hell.
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