A GIFT FROM THE CITY ?

I found this little tidbit while surfing the net a few minutes ago.



"For many years, hope has been in short supply in parts of Baltimore. While some areas have been revitalized, much of the city is plagued by crime, poverty and drugs. According to the Census Bureau, nearly 23 percent of residents live below the poverty line and the city has an estimated 60,000 addicts."



I got it off of CNN and it tells a major story. We have just been through a major economic bubble of false prosperity. Money all over the place! And while all this money, no matter how phony, was splashing around the country, Baltimore had this to offer the people of this nation. Almost a fourth of them are below the poverty level. But I'll bet there is a lot of consumer wealth in that mix of poverty. The poverty level is ascertained by the legal income of people and the cost of living. So these people are making it in a big city by some other means than a legal income. And I can relate to that. No sense starving while there is money around for easy pickin'. But I have the idea that these aren't workers caught in a bind of no work. I think a lot of these people are crime oriented. And there are 60,000 drug addicts there.



60,000 drug addicts means someone has to be earning a lot of money to support an addiction. That's millions of dollars a week! And it ain't being invested in something that will benefit the whole city. It's going in a hole in Daddy's arm.

Now you take $10,000,000 a week and put it in the bank or wherever you think it would be safe and at the end of a year you have half a billion dollars! I can do a lot for a large body of people for a half billion. I could buy them land and build them homes and put in their crops and buy their cattle and hogs and chickens and turkeys and all that stuff. I could get them one of the finest little life support systems on the planet. No problem. We found three plots of ground down on the Kentucky-Tennessee border of approximately 100,000 acres apiece for sale in the 80's. Could have bought them for $10,000,000 each. Things get cheap when you can pay cash.

Think of the possibilities! You could put 100,000 people on the land and give them a way to make a livelihood. You could let them make a life of decency. Men could be men and not welfare slaves. But do you think it could happen? No way, Jose. Those people are locked into their city life and their crime income and their welfare. They don't want to swing a pick and a shovel or a hammer and nails all day. They don't want to make roads and dig footers and saw up logs into boards. It ain't their style. So they will stay in the city until the bitter end of the city. Whites, blacks, mexicans, etc. They will stay until they absolutely can't make it anymore. And then they will come out. And when they come out they will be big trouble for whoever gets in their way.

Thus we have firearms and ammunition. Thus we are miles away from major cities. This is the way it has to be. And there are decent people out there who will try to make it in the cities when the trouble starts. And if God doesn't bring them out I don't know what anyone can do for them.

But we will get back to this subject another time. It's interesting.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net