If I had money, I would pay off all of my neighbors houses anonymously, so that they would never have to worry about living in the street and eating, which I worry about regularly. I see so much suffering around me since the recession/depression hit this area, it makes me physically sick to my stomach. Our present system of government seems the most unjust of all, because so much more could be done, instead of defense spending and space satellites, and frittering away the gifts we are giving them, taxes. Raise our taxes if need be and feed, clothe, shelter and protect our poor. I would like to conduct a poll of everyone in the city to see how many people are unemployed and underemployed, and somehow ensure that all the people who want to work are employed. If the men were employed at a living wage, it would create a lot of job openings, because their wives could stop working and stay home with the children, and the single members of my ideal city would be able to find work too. Most of all I would like to buy ny ex-neighbor, who had his home involuntarily auctioned, a similar home. If I could somehow do all of the above, the first thing the city council would do is vote themselves a raise, because the city would be prospering, whether they had anything to do with it or not, and I would have to move to another city, and start over, hoping the next city government would be smarter.
I feel very strongly about President John F. Kennedy's statement "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country".
In reference to the ideal city that I've described, minus the city council's pay raises, I would have to require a one-year residency of anyone working at a job in the city, and the owners of any new businesses would have to have lived in my city one-year also, since that is when unemployment benefits start running out. I would have to be judge and jury, and exclude many people who would need a job badly. I would have to provide a dividing line on who were to be productive members of my city. After a one- year residency, even though it is a future one-year residency, a job would be offered to those willing to work. Unfortunately, some people, past and future, would have lived on the street and not have had enough to eat one -year, because their unemployment had been exhausted before they moved to my city, and others, only one day. Also unfortunately, the rewards would be the same, but there must be a dividing line, so that I would eventually be able to take care of all the residents. Only people who truly want their friends or relatives with them will be allowed to indefinite visits by their friends or relatives, and I would be the judge and jury again.
Maybe Mother always needed an exorcism instead of Haldol: to her, she was religion personified. She made seemingly good-hearted gestures, but expected a pay-back one way or another, even extracted and irrational pay-backs.
I have more love for my neighbors than my Mom's brother, who is a minister. When Mom's mind completely snapped, I called him, crying, pleading for his help with her, and even offered to pay all of his expenses if he would come here for awhile, but he refused. Yet when he was a young man, he was told by a 'voice' (according to my Mom) to break his engagement to his fiance, and become a minister, because he wouldn't be able to be married and be a minister. I forgive him, but I personally had hell here on earth between the time that Dad died and Mom was finally given anti psychotic drugs last year, let alone all the years before that time.
