disaster in the ghetto

A trip through a south Chicago neighborhood evaluating damage again brought me up close to the depths of urban poverty. As we traveled from street to street assessing flood damage we visited houses in various states of disrepair. The residents seemed unconcerned, apathetic to their homes' conditions, acclimated to the squalor.

A "grocery" store on a corner had one sign announcing its acceptance of WIC, while the other proclaimed a bargain on 22 oz. bottles of Budweiser. The streets are cracked, crumbling, just as are the houses to which they lead.

Approaching one set of houses, two teenagers walked by in the street, absent from school on just the fourth day. As I approached one home, accompanied by a policeman, one said to the other, "Motherfuckers think cuz they got the police with them they can knock on the door, look around inside."

I cross a lawn to the next home, closer to the ambling teens. "I woulda shot them motherfuckers in the face," he continues, louder this time so I will hear. I glance over as they look back at me, chortling.

That’s the real disaster in these communities, the poverty and despair, and it is not one for which federal aid will be or even can remedy. They have atrophied to such an extent that there is no solution. Survival is the basic battle with little reward for success. So systemic and debilitating is the here that it's difficult to comprehend it being any other way.