Out of Touch

As I watch the world news tonight unfold, something finally strikes me.  The beautiful Botoxed woman in front of the camera, the one with the impeccable plastic surgery, wonderful make up artists, and wardrobe people, exclaims that she’s bewildered by the Haitian and Cubans who are staying put while a very strong Category 4 (fluctuating between a 4 and 5 for the past 48 hours) barrels towards them, promising impending doom.

She’s so out of touch.  She’s spent too much time dining in fine establishments, having her every whim catered, that she doesn’t comprehend what it’s like to be someone with nothing to lose, but one’s life.  This woman considers a car ‘issue’ a HUGE issue. The fact that she HAS a car is something that many of those would be grateful to have.  Dishwashers, clothes washers, dryers… shall I go on? They don’t have these luxuries, they can only wish for a piece of that, one of those things, because, when you are poor, there’s a price to be paid, precious time, exorbitant money in ‘rental solutions’, and just a lack of.

When a ‘normal day’ encompasses finding potable water, being able to put at least one meal in front of your children a day, when your home has a dirt floor and you don’t have air conditioning.  When you live in a neighborhood that is predispositioned to violence.  You live in an area because that’s where you can afford to live.  Rent… not owning, because enough strikes against you in the game of life.

The inhabitants, to numb their weary hearts and bodies, turn to things that numb the mind and body, just so they can face another day without losing their mind while they see others so well off.  Others pray, a lot. They turn to a God that somehow hears their meager prayers, and allows them to face another day of the existence that they are eaking out.

Those who ‘have’ are so quick to judge the decisions of those who ‘have not’.  The ‘have nots’ are those that are willing to stand their ground, keep watch over themselves and their families and neighbors, and are the first to respond to others when they need physical assistance, because that’s all they can afford to give.

When did it happen? When did our society become so divergent, between the ‘haves and have nots’?  What ever happened to the middle class, because I’m seeing more ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ but no middle in sight. You can’t tell me that it’s only the under/uneducated… because I see people with college degrees waiting on tables, because they don’t have the ‘connections’ or they are too old for the job force. 

(Sidebar: I had a wonderful man wait on myself and my daughter in a little neighborhood restaurant last week. He’s got a Masters degree, but apparently, doesn’t have enough connections in order to get a job.) 

I listen to this announcer discuss with a ‘street reporter’ about ‘security’ for a poor b-list celeb that got robbed in Paris. My stomach turns… there are so many others that are far more worthy of the time they’re wasting on this ‘celeb’, there are people who are doing life changing things for others, at their own sacrifice, and yet… we’re more concerned with this woman than we are with the truly beautiful people. The people with souls who stand in the face of dire straights, insurmountable odds, and horrific storms.