“THE American dream is in crisis, [Robert] Putnam argues, because Americans used to care about other people’s kids and now they only care about their own kids. But, he [Robert Putnam] writes,”America’s poor kids do belong to us and we to them. They are our kids. “ This is a lot like his argument in “Bowling Alone.” In high school in Port Clinton, Putnam was in a bowling league; he regards bowling leagues as a marker of community and civic engagement; bowling leagues are in decline; hence Americans don’t take care of one another anymore. “Bowling Alone” and “Our Kids” also have the same homey just-folksiness. And they have the same shortcomings. If you don’t miss bowling leagues or all-white suburbs where women wear aprons—if Putnam’s then was not your then and his now isn’t your now—his well-intentioned “we” can be remarkably grating.” — Jill Lepore, “Richer and Poorer,” New Yorker, March 16, 2015.
When I arrived in the United States in 1972, I was exposed to a new way of life. In our network of family and friends, we came to gatherings, concerned about how to take care of the children running around to play. Hosts and friends set up activities to make sure they were playing in a safe environment, while the adults kept “an eye” on the little ones. They were foremost on our minds. It became “de rigueur” for tasks on babysitting, cooking and washing dishes to be distributed. When you sat in a corner, not wanting to contribute, you were talked about by friends and you were “talked to” about how indifferent you were.
Mothers and fathers sat around to figure out solutions to their immigrant issues: how to get jobs, where to go for effective health care services, where to go for civic engagement training and eventually, placement for jobs and citizenship. It was a case of more established families helping new immigrant families settle in and be acclimatized. It went on for years, until children grew up to have their own families.
Now, the second-generation families have more resources and have better access to all kinds of ethnic foods, that get-togethers are catered by Asian restaurants, mobile taco trucks or traveling caterers with creativity and specialties. They seek new activities: Martin Nievera’s concerts, Adele’s, Hamilton musical, Broadway and dance shows, hiking, jogging, marathons, Ciclavia, and even deliveries of UberEATS brought to their workplaces in ten minutes or less, faster than it would take to drive to the local fast-food chain of McDonald’s or Jack in the Box.
What becomes of our culture?
The culture that once bred nurturing of families, of organizations within communities, of solving social issues as primary concerns, has now become an individualist culture of making oneself productive and efficient, caring for what UberEATS has to offer daily, all for the sake of “convenience,” and making oneself pretty through facials, spas, massages, including reversing aging process, through Time Machine, and presenting oneself as fabulously dressed in the latest haute coutures or leather jackets for sale, but also our worship rituals in churches or synagogues.
The once caring mother who got up early to prepare breakfast simply gives a few dollars and the high school student walks to a nearby Starbucks to get her Green Matcha Tea Latte and her blueberry muffin. Or walks to nearby Coffee Bean to get a pomegranate lemonade and a scone.
These scones and muffins that were baked in a bakery, where workers are paid at times, less than a minimum wage; now the campaign calls for living wages to be at $15/hour.
Are we touched? Do we socialize with immigrant families, who subsist less than $15/hour? Are they within our circles of care and networking?
Where I live — what used to be occupying sounds of children on the streets and sidewalks — now has walkers and joggers walking dogs. We now have to come out of our house and engage neighbors in conversations or visit sick families.
Before our hearts were primed open to care for one another, including babysitting another family’s children on weekends, while their parents/our friends work extended hours, our community organizations were also about civic engagement, as we saw direct correlation of our political involvement translated into jobs programs, or affordable housing for seniors and even decent preschools for children. America’s poor kids did belong to us and we to them. They became our kids.
From collective indifference to mercy
Steve Fraser fumes in “The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power,” as cited by Jill Lepore, “Steve Fraser fumes that what’s gone wrong with political discourse in America is that the left isn’t willing to blame anyone for anything anymore. There use to be battle cries. No more king! Down with fat cats! Damn the moneycrats!
“Like Putnam’s argument, Fraser’s is both historical and nostalgic. Fraser longs for the passion and force which Americans of earlier generations attack aggregated power. Think of the way Frederick Douglass wrote about slavery, Ida Wells wrote about lynching, Ida Tarbell wrote about Standard Oil, Upton Sinclair wrote about the meatpacking industry, and Louis Brandeis wrote about the money trust. These people weren’t squeamish about villains, ” Jill Lepore continues to quote him.
Now, we have US Senator Bernie Sanders, slaying pharmaceutical industries about outrageous prices on drugs, making them inaccessible to those who need them. We have a crisis of drinking water in Flint, Michigan and it takes Hillary Clinton to hold a dialogue with the local mayor, on his invitation, and offer cursory solutions like testing children for lead intoxication, yet no one talks about replacing water pipes while GM got new water pipes into their factories built by government, because corrosive water cannot create new cars, at the cost of close to half a million dollars to the municipality.
Both candidates offered a much clearer vision on how to proceed, while the Republicans are calling each other, liars on national television.
Martin Shkreli angered many in how he priced the drug, Daraprim, used to treat toxoplasmosis, a disease that can be fatal to HIV patients, once priced at less than $20 per tablet to $750 per tablet, an astronomical increase of 2,666 percent. He was called into Congress for an inquiry, covered by national television networks.
We watched how Martin Shkreli seemingly unmoved by the comments of Congressman Elijah Cummings to care that he can make a difference to many people.
Under a Republican-dominated Congress, the hearing became a charade, of questions for not probing for truth, “This is a great opportunity, if you want to educate the members of Congress about drug pricing, or what you called the fictitious case against you.”
Martin Shkreli, short of contempt, simply responds, “On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question.”
Recall how big tobacco industry CEOs responded then when subjected to a congressional inquiry? They too refused to answer, invoking Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination.
Why is Congress appealing to him? Where are their legislative analysts? Why are they not asking the right questions, probing? Have they lost their sense of legislative responsibilities and their public oath of office to serve the American people?
What does Martin Shkreli use his money on? Kalefa Sanneh of the New Yorker described how Shkreli spent $2,000,000 on a music album by Wu-Tang Clan.
Must we rail against Shkreli’s avarice or greed for profits? Or must we rail against a Congress who fails to represent our working families’ interests?
What is in the horizon, now? Pharmaceutical industry is gearing up for ads to attack government on why their industry is the way it is. It sounds like a battle for ads, competing for our attention, and when truth emerges, will it take years from now? Or will Congress undergo a transformation into a caring institution after Nov. 15, 2016? Must we be concerned?
In “The Church of Mercy” Pope Francis remind us, “Let us think about this: it is the greatest mutation in humanity’s history. It is a true revolution; we are the revolutionaries and, what is more, revolutionaries of the revolution. For we have taken this road of the greatest metamorphosis in humanity’s history. In this day and age, unless Christians are revolutionaries, they are not Christians. They must be revolutionaries through grace! Grace itself, which the Father gives us through the crucified, dead and risen Jesus Christ, makes us revolutionaries because — and once again I cite Benedict XVI — he [Jesus] is the greatest mutation in this history of humanity” because he changes the heart.”
When young ones project their anger on a political system and go for a candidate, do they really know what they want for America? Will they be content to express their passions into $34 contribution to the unique voice of Bernie Sanders? Do they understand that it also requires that they too, become more engaged, more politicized, more involved so they create and renew the culture of indifference into a more caring culture?
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for AJ Press for 9 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.