A PLACE TO LIVE

 

Journal

A PLACE TO LIVE

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

As I sit here on a chilly morning, cozy in my writing chair, wrapped in an old wool sweater next to a warm fire in the wood stove with my sweet little dog Rosie snuggled up next to me, I realize how fortunate I am.  I don’t take the good fortune of my comfort for granted.  I’m reminded of the old Shaker song written by Joseph Brackett in 1848 “Tis a gift to be simple, Tis a gift to be free”.  The comfort & freedom I have are truly treasures and I’m deeply grateful for them.

My Grandmother, Mattie, attended a Quaker church across the street from her home.  She raised thirteen children in the Great Depression!  I went to church with her once as a little boy.  All I can recall about that experience is the hard, unpadded pew we sat in as I squirmed and waited for it all to be over.  I loved “Little Grandma” as I called her because she was only 4’10” tall, but very strong and loving.  Her mattress was filled with feathers and I would vault into her bed and feel myself embraced by that mattress as it enveloped me.

Her cellar was filled with jars of all kinds of canned fruits and vegetables.  Even though she lived alone at that point she had been canning for a lifetime to provide for her family.  She died in a hospital bed at a nursing home, alone, just staring at the ceiling, not speaking – the victim of an ill-advised surgery late in her life instead of just letting her die naturally.  Modern medicine is not always a blessing.

But I digress.  Outside on this chilly morning there are people huddled in whatever shelter they can find.  Their stomachs empty as they struggle to keep warm in the winter and cool when it’s scorching hot outside.  I heard recently that being homeless shortens a person’s life by twenty years, even more if one dies from exposure, murder or starvation.

I’m reminded of local affordable housing advocate, Janae Stephen’s exploration of Cohousing.  Janae has a website called Greenleaf Cohousing.  As Janae recently mentioned “Getting old is expensive and presents a whole new set of challenges.” 

Housing has become more and more expensive and those on limited incomes who are elderly, disabled or mentally ill are even more likely to end up homeless.  In the U.S. the “defense budget” dwarfs every other tax-funded expense. People who manufacture unnecessary and useless weapons that even military experts complain are unnecessary are manufactured to “keep jobs in my district” per politicians. Here’s a job idea: builder, plumber, auto repair, caregiver (they deserve better pay), explore better recycling technology, shut down hackers, develop clean and safe energy.

President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law in December 2017. Corporate tax revenues declined by $92 billion or 32% due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This per the Congressional Budget Office.   What about housing, food and water? What’s more important?

A better use of funds would be to develop alternative forms of affordable housing. 

Visit the website www.cohousing.org.  “Cohousing is about community and living where everyone involved wants to be a good neighbor.  It is a place where elders can age gracefully, and young families can feel supported.”  The site goes on to say” Cohousing is an intentional, collaborative neighborhood that combines private homes with shared indoor and outdoor spaces designed to support an active and interdependent community life.  Cohousing is not a financial or legal model, but rather a descriptive term that emphasizes the active participation of residents in everything from design to governance.” 

There's a great book on the subject called Creating a Life Together – Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian with a forward by the well-known American physician, activist, diplomat and author Patch Adams.  I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to explore the topic. 

You can explore other types of intentional community living at www.ic.org/Best-of-Communities/.  Best of Communities explores important topics such as leadership and power, agreement, conflict and communication (an essential topic to understand), sustainable food energy and transportation, ecovillage design, challenges and lessons of community, and many other related topics.  Cohousing isn’t for everyone but there are other models for affordable housing to explore.

Recently Helen Falandes, a community treasure, wrote “Mendocino County staff reached out to city entities and non-profits with a request for proposals (for State homeless grant monies)…Sadly, for the North County only one application was submitted, by a non-profit, which was not accepted.  Therefore, there are now no county or state funded services based in Willits to help reduce homelessness in our community this winter.”

In 1964 communications researcher, Marshall McLuhan, wrote his prophetic book The Medium is the Message.  This was long before virtually anyone foresaw the society-changing effect of the internet.  He suggests essentially that how we communicate – get information – changes society.  Certainly the internet has changed society as corporate interests have changed how we think and act.  That has never been clearer than at this critical time in history. 

Resources crucial to survival, and certainly politics that dramatically determine how government functions, have been altered, often not for the betterment of society and our planet.  Our own nation is at a tipping point where corporate interests and those of the super-wealthy are literally trying to enslave the masses – that’s you and me, in their own pursuit of wealth and power. 

The leaders of authoritarian nations who have successfully enslaved their own people are now using mass media to deceive and rob our own U.S. citizens of our free will, common sense and critical thinking with misinformation on the internet.  Even the words “critical thinking” have been weaponized as if thinking for yourself is somehow wrong!  That’s profoundly dangerous, and it’s ripping society apart.  This is how societies and nations collapse.  That’s not an overstatement.

What does this have to do with affordable housing?  Well, when you live in fear such as not being able to afford to rent or buy a house, food and the other essentials of life – you may be tempted to give your power away.  Desperation and fear are the tools of fascists.  Neighbor against neighbor i.e. divide and conquer, is one of the most powerful tactics of war.  We don’t need kings.  We need people who can assess and solve real problems. 

If you don’t have a safe place to live you may be tempted to give your personal power away by not voting or speaking up hoping you will somehow survive.  Mass media can be a two-edged sword that can cut your head off, without critical thinking and action on your part.  Believe me when I warn that the “trickle-down economy” theory does not and has never worked. 

The father of that toxic theory, economist Milton Friedman, despite his accolades, was misguided at best and a fascist at worst.  He had a great influence on American economic policy and not for the better.  The economic collapse of 2007 in which millions of people lost their homes can be traced back to his failed “free-market” theories.  His disciple, Alan Greenspan served several presidents of the U.S. and even he admitted after that tragic time in recent history, that it was a wrong path – but his epiphany came too late. 

As a real estate agent in 2007 at the end of the George W. Bush administration, I watched in awe as over the period of a few weeks our economy collapsed due to junk housing loans by corrupt financial institutions.  Real estate – homes - are the foundation of the economy.  Finding ways to develop affordable housing is not a “nice theory”, it’s essential to a stable society.  

We’re at a critical time in the history of the U.S. where authoritarian influences are stirring up fear and anger – divide and conquer, even dividing families.  Technology is changing the world. It’s not ever going to be the way it used to be.   The medium is the message, but the real message is ‘think for yourself’.  Use common sense, and develop new and affordable ways to live and cooperate, vote for leaders who actually offer reasonable solutions to real problems.  If a “leader” isn’t offering workable solutions to real problems they are worthless or worse – and, this is very important – be kind and give a damn.