Our Inheritance: Every Man For Himself

We live in a culture of success defined by money made at any cost. We are obsessed with protecting our way of life to the detriment of the world. An individual’s and society’s character is measured not only by wealth but by compassion. Silent witnesses to crimes big and small are co-conspirators, not good people.

In the olden days, it was every man for himself. Many still pretend that the world is their oyster, today. It isn’t. We as individuals, industries and countries have a profound effect on the rest of the world. Today, we are all in it together.

The less developed countries suffer consequences of the industrial success of others.

The refugee crisis isn’t local, it’s worldwide. Would you leave your home and loved ones to seek fortune elsewhere? No, you don’t have to. But what if you had to? What if you were afraid for your life? Starving? You – and everyone else in their sound mind – would run for dear life. Many do because they have no other choice: it’s run or die.

The refugee crisis doesn’t take place on our southern border, alone. It’s a worldwide crisis. The refugees aren’t adventurers or parasites, they are people who risk everything for the chance to survive. They are driven from their homes and families by violence or hunger.

What would you do if you witnessed someone drowning? If you know how to swim, you’d likely jump in and try to save them. If you don’t, chances are you’d call for help or dial 911. And yet, that’s not what’s happening in the U.S., right now.

Refugees and undocumented immigrants are being vilified, called murderers and rapists(?!), arrested, detained, separated from one another and even their children. We’re building a “wall” to keep them out. Rumor has it that alligators and snakes as well shooting immigrants in the legs were considered. The “wall” which being constructed as we speak allegedly heats up, has a barbed wire on top, etc. to harm the hurting who seek refuge from persecution and hunger. The refugees are being denied entry and asylum. Even legal immigration and visas for medical treatment are now being conditioned on the wealth of the applicants…..

Can you believe it? You stand on a bridge, you see someone drowning and no, you don’t do anything to help or summon help. You shout: “What’s your income? How much money you got in your checking account? Do you have a saving account? What assets do you have?”

Our lack of environmental, political and economic responsibility caused the massive influx of immigrants on the southern border.

Industrially-developed countries of Europe, Russia and China are contributing to the refugee crisis elsewhere. Several European countries developed immigration policies that accept responsibility for the refugees from asylum to assimilation, already.

We made many billions thanks to South America by exploiting their natural resources, polluting their lands with our manufacturing and industrial waste, interfering in their countries’ politics and last but not least, by benefiting from cheap labor of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

That’s VERY bad. We directly contributed to environmental damage and global warming. Worse, we are igniting hatred toward the very people we used to our benefit and whose lives we put in danger.

THINK! What danger does a refugee family pose to yours?…. What can they possibly take away from you? What competition are they really on the labor market?

What do YOU think and feel when you see a mother with a child in dire straits? Do you believe that she is dangerous? Are you curious about her “assets”? Do you feel threatened?
Would you like to burn, hurt or shoot her? Does it cross your mind that it could have been YOUR mother with YOU in tow or YOU with YOUR child? If either of the hypotheticals were true, what reception would you hope for from the people you turned for help to?

If you or your family were ever affected by a disaster (like fire, earthquake or flood) you know that none of us is immune to tragedy. We are all vulnerable. Most of us – at one time or another – depend on a helping hand. Denying a helping hand to someone in need in general is contemptible. Denying responsibility for situations that to some degree we caused – or contributed to – is worse.

Keeping in mind that in most cases, we contributed to the refugees’ desperation, who is morally responsible for their survival and their future? The current refugee crisis is either our greatest moral failure (like abandoning our Kurdish allies in Syria) or… we are so corrupted that we refuse to accept reality to continue benefiting from the on-going crisis?…..

The Dreamers are a topic in its own right. I’m a writer, not an attorney, but even I know that you can’t prosecute one person for the crime committed by another. In the case of Dreamers, many of them arrived in our country as small children. Due to their age they were not aware of breaking the law and unable to consent to it, either. The only country they know and love is America. In many cases, the only language they speak is English. Not acknowledging, legalizing and accepting them with open arms is… insane.

*

Homelessness is another example of every man for himself. There are more than 550,000 homeless Americans.

Check out the homelessness numbers by State! They are scary. Particularly, in California and New York State which are home to the largest homeless populations.

Who are the homeless? They are predominantly white. According to EndHomelessness.org:

“Most people experiencing homelessness are individuals (67 percent). The remainder (33 percent) are people in families with children.”

Why and how do people become homeless? Low-income earners are at highest risk. One of the primary reasons low-income earners become homeless are uncontrolled rent increases.

Bottom line: the majority of homeless people today aren’t “lazy bums”. Many of them have full-time jobs. But with minimum wage too low in proportion to the cost of living and uncontrolled, arbitrary rent increases people are forced out of housing and on the street. Many who are not homeless yet, find themselves one surprise rent increase away from homelessness.

One has to wonder whether it’s right that a person who works full-time can’t afford basic necessities such as food and housing. One has to wonder whether landlords should have the power to raise rent whenever – and by whatever amount – they choose, if such rent increases force people into homelessness.

But there are larger questions to ask: if a writer can figure out the main causes of the catastrophic rise in homelessness, the government has that information, too. Why so little is being done to stop the crisis?!

In Los Angeles – where I live – the Police Department conducts periodical street sweeps and evacuates the homeless residents, presumably transporting them to shelters. The Department of Sanitation rounds up the homeless people’s belongings and cleans the sidewalks. I don’t have access to the actual costs of these regularly repeated procedures. I don’t know what’s the cost of running a homeless shelter, providing meals and accommodations. I’m sure that none of it is cheap.

I’m just a regular person with some common sense. And I know that preventing disease is cheap and can save time, pain and the expense of medical treatment. If you consider that $200 – $500 stands between a low-income earner and homelessness than I – the utterly UNQUALIFIED individual – can see THREE ways to end the homelessness crisis:

1/ increase the minimum wage
2/ control rent increases in affordable housing
3/ provide emergency financial assistance to low-income households at risk of homelessness until the two items above take effect

 

Getting a homeless person off the street costs thousands of dollars. Preventing homelessness would likely cost $200 – $500 and two strokes of a governmental pen.

We, the “normal” people who manage to stay afloat dislike the homeless. They are dirty, smelly, impolite; they invade our public spaces… Worse, they are visible stains on our otherwise pretty clear collective conscience.

For as long as we are fine, we have the need to separate ourselves from those in need. We have our own families and expenses to worry about.

What’s the alternative? Instead of “every man for himself”, we could focus on advocating for the 2-3 changes that will stop the crisis. Just a thought.

*

That much on the subject of the unprecedented “flood” of refugees. That’s not the only case where the “every man for himself” applies. It is every man for himself in life and in the workplace, too.

The drive to excel and to succeed is natural and can be good. It is because of individuals who are smarter, more enterprising, working harder and more daring than others that the world moves forward. We should all admire those who lead the way by their merit. The emphasis is on the word MERIT.

Merit deserves respect, recognition and reward. The ability to lie, cheat, steal, mislead and exploit doesn’t. Those who truly contribute to civilization and society don’t earn their stripes by being deceitful.

It is merit that makes people role models, not fraud. No matter who you are; no matter how successful or wealthy you may be, true success is measured by merit, generosity and compassion.

Dishonesty, selfishness, education, healthcare, economy, politics, are issues. People are facts. Life is sacred. Being humane makes us human!

*

Reading a piece like the above makes one wonder. What can we as individuals, communities and people do to change things? Check the MAKE IT BETTER section of Alternative Human Community magazine for answers! Yes, there are answers.