The Day of Grapes of Wrath Are Upon Us
Written by Thomas Cain
thecainreport@gmail.com
California’s unemployment currently stands at 10.3%. That means one out of every ten adults is out of work. California has one of the highest rates of house foreclosures in the nation. Thousands of hard working citizens that once owned a home are homeless or in other terms are listed among the street people.
On the outskirts of the City of Sacramento there are nearly one thousand homeless citizens that have pitched tents along the Sacramento River. They are not your everyday common homeless people that roam the streets begging for food or shelter. These people were once the thriving citizens of Sacramento that, for no fault of their own, found themselves victimized by the biggest mortgage scam perpetrated in American history. Destitute with nowhere to go they turned to the only place they could call home: a makeshift tent city on the outskirts of their beloved City of Sacramento. Now, one would think that the City Council would be overjoyed that these hardworking people are not wandering the streets, but have a tent (if one could call a tent a home) to retire to. But this is not the case.
Sacramento City Council has sternly warned these unfortunate citizens that they must vacate and pack up or face arrest. As one City Council Member put it, “We will not tolerate “these people” camping along the riverfront much longer.” So what is happening? The City has authorized local and county law enforcement to harangue and berate these poor people. Law enforcement go from tent to tent asking for identification and demanding for the homeless victims to produce a camping permit. Of course there is no camping permit because the City of Sacramento does not authorize any. On failing to provide a camping permit these victims of society must immediately pack up their wives and children and leave the only place they can call home.
John Steinbeck vividly described such heartless atrocities in his book, “The Grapes of Wrath” In the late thirties Oklahoma farmers and migrant workers were forced to leave the security of their homes due to drought which has come to be known as the “Dust Bowl” era of the thirties and forties. By the thousands Oklahoma migrant workers headed out west to secure work in the agricultural fields of the Golden State of California. Instead of finding honest employers the “Okies” as they were known, were cheated out of their wages, forced to live in filthy rat infested migrant tents, with no running water or toilet facilities, and survived off of broth chicory coffee.
They were often beaten by law enforcement officers, their women were raped, their children wallowed in body waste, and they lacked medical care. The poor souls that complained about their ill treatment, the camp guards would come in the middle of night and physically terrorize the whole family, including the children. What meager belongings the migrant workers possessed were often damaged or destroyed at the hands of the cruel camp guards. The elderly and small children died from disease or starvation. It was an oppressive and shameful era of American history. Yet some seventy years later America continues its repressive assault on the poor, the neglected homeless people, and the housing market victims. The only difference is the Dust Bowl era has a new name: The Mortgage Scandal of America.
We call ourselves a compassionate nation, and yet over eleven million children in this nation go to bed hungry every night. Hundreds of thousands of war veterans are homeless with nowhere to turn to for help. The poor get poorer while the rich gorge themselves off the misery of America’s unfortunate victims of society. America once a kindhearted, compassionate nation has willfully abandoned society’s underprivileged, depriving them of the golden opportunities of a God-fearing nation. Truly, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath has once again found its way into the black heart of corporate America’s greed governed by corrupt politics whose primary desire is ill gotten gain at the expense of the poor.
thecainreport@gmail.com
California’s unemployment currently stands at 10.3%. That means one out of every ten adults is out of work. California has one of the highest rates of house foreclosures in the nation. Thousands of hard working citizens that once owned a home are homeless or in other terms are listed among the street people.
On the outskirts of the City of Sacramento there are nearly one thousand homeless citizens that have pitched tents along the Sacramento River. They are not your everyday common homeless people that roam the streets begging for food or shelter. These people were once the thriving citizens of Sacramento that, for no fault of their own, found themselves victimized by the biggest mortgage scam perpetrated in American history. Destitute with nowhere to go they turned to the only place they could call home: a makeshift tent city on the outskirts of their beloved City of Sacramento. Now, one would think that the City Council would be overjoyed that these hardworking people are not wandering the streets, but have a tent (if one could call a tent a home) to retire to. But this is not the case.
Sacramento City Council has sternly warned these unfortunate citizens that they must vacate and pack up or face arrest. As one City Council Member put it, “We will not tolerate “these people” camping along the riverfront much longer.” So what is happening? The City has authorized local and county law enforcement to harangue and berate these poor people. Law enforcement go from tent to tent asking for identification and demanding for the homeless victims to produce a camping permit. Of course there is no camping permit because the City of Sacramento does not authorize any. On failing to provide a camping permit these victims of society must immediately pack up their wives and children and leave the only place they can call home.
John Steinbeck vividly described such heartless atrocities in his book, “The Grapes of Wrath” In the late thirties Oklahoma farmers and migrant workers were forced to leave the security of their homes due to drought which has come to be known as the “Dust Bowl” era of the thirties and forties. By the thousands Oklahoma migrant workers headed out west to secure work in the agricultural fields of the Golden State of California. Instead of finding honest employers the “Okies” as they were known, were cheated out of their wages, forced to live in filthy rat infested migrant tents, with no running water or toilet facilities, and survived off of broth chicory coffee.
They were often beaten by law enforcement officers, their women were raped, their children wallowed in body waste, and they lacked medical care. The poor souls that complained about their ill treatment, the camp guards would come in the middle of night and physically terrorize the whole family, including the children. What meager belongings the migrant workers possessed were often damaged or destroyed at the hands of the cruel camp guards. The elderly and small children died from disease or starvation. It was an oppressive and shameful era of American history. Yet some seventy years later America continues its repressive assault on the poor, the neglected homeless people, and the housing market victims. The only difference is the Dust Bowl era has a new name: The Mortgage Scandal of America.
We call ourselves a compassionate nation, and yet over eleven million children in this nation go to bed hungry every night. Hundreds of thousands of war veterans are homeless with nowhere to turn to for help. The poor get poorer while the rich gorge themselves off the misery of America’s unfortunate victims of society. America once a kindhearted, compassionate nation has willfully abandoned society’s underprivileged, depriving them of the golden opportunities of a God-fearing nation. Truly, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath has once again found its way into the black heart of corporate America’s greed governed by corrupt politics whose primary desire is ill gotten gain at the expense of the poor.
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