Our Land is Rich, Yet we are Poor: Where am I ? (you'll be surprised)

[annm4peace]

Where does your food come from ? (hint: especially nuts and fruits)


Worse than Appalachia. Valley congressional district ranks last nationwide

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/735060.html

WASHINGTON -- Poverty, poor health and low graduation rates have put the San Joaquin Valley's 20th Congressional District dead last in a new national scorecard that ranks the well-being of residents.

Even notoriously grim Appalachia fares better than the congressional district that sweeps in Fresno, Kings and Kern counties, the study made public Wednesday shows. The assessment of health, education and income ranks the district 436th out of 436 districts nationwide.

http://www.sunmt.org/nuts.html

ARE YOU PART OF THE SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM ?
Please help us in the Central Valley
http://www.cvppac.org /

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Freep Central.

:freak:

[annm4peace]

4. The Freeps in Fresno are a very, very, very small group

Here is a link from their picnic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892737/posts

I know, cause they would come protest us. They are are really an impotent group, a bunch of nasty pathetic people.. you could say boo.. and they would scatter.



the guy in a wheelchair in the far right is Jim Robinson. He is a Vietnam vet but the wheelchair isn't from a war injury.

The really evil are the neo-con media, preachers at the big box churches, and good ol'boys business.

Several years ago Fresno's Bob Smitcamp owner of Lyons Magnus Foods had a fundraiser at his house in Fresno, CA for FL's Jeb Bush. He refused to let some of the Freepers in who wanted to come to the fundraiser.

[Occam Bandage]

2. Wow. I honestly was unaware of this situation. Thank you.

[Occam Bandage]

3. Kick, I think this needs a bit of attention.

[charlie]

5. I hate the common newspaper practice

of not providing outbound links. It's really annoying.

The site for the study referenced in the Fresno Bee article:

Measure of America

[begin_within]

6. It's saddening because the Central Valley is an enormous and bountifully rich agricultural area

It's not like a rust belt or like there's no wealth being created there - it's a vast area which is mostly agricultural, and you know that megabucks are being made - vast wealth from agriculture - but it's all going to the wrong people

[hootinholler]

7. Same as it ever was.

Didn't Woody Guthrie hang out there for a while with his facist killin machine?

-Hoot

[begin_within]

8. yes, and "The Grapes of Wrath" etc.

[SmileyRose]

9. They've been thrown away.

Not everyone is college material - and someone has to clean the hotel rooms, fix the toilets in our schools and pick up the trash. All anyone asks is a half decent roof over their head, enough reasonably nutritious food for their families, access to a doctor in case of really serious illness or injury and the ability to have this when they are too old and broken to continue to clean up behind the rest of the world.

IMHO the biggest problem poor areas face is precisely because there are so many poor people all in one place. Why we still have not learned economic diversity I have no idea. We close the projects, give them section 8 vouchers and then abandon them all to a different part of town, but still all together where we don't have to deal with them, just like before.

WHY are we not requiring affordable or subsidized housing mixed in with upper middle class housing? Wherever the middle and upper middle class lives is where the jobs are that the lowest class is looking for. It's also where all the services are. It's shameful and selfish to throw the poorest into forgotten communities and leave their kids with no decent schools, job opportunities or even transportation out of the place.

[crikkett]

11. the way you frame your argument as them/us assumes a lot

and i wonder what it says about you.

I'm glad you feel for 'them' (well, us) and I wonder what you'd say if I told you that lots of 'college material' is looking for even menial work these days.

[SmileyRose]

12. I was just trying not to make it too personal.

3 times since joining the DU I've been chastised for making my post too personal - so I tried to post from a perspective of the big picture. Now I'm hearing it for not being personal enough. No win situation there I guess.

I'm on the very low end of middle class. My husband and I have a combined income of under $30,000 a year. He is disabled but managed to get to where he could get his few $100 a month from his union pension and I work one full time job behind a desk and one part time job cleaning up behind people. My desk job is very insecure and I will likely be looking for a local job cleaning up behind people that close enough to walk or ride my bike to very soon. Most of my life has been spent cleaning up behind people, but I've enjoyed the desk work for the few years I've been able to get it. Doesn't pay much more but the working conditions are much better.

It took us 20 years but we managed to save up $5000 in the bank. Recently we've had to start tapping into that because of rapidly rising medical costs and the cost of everything else. There's no place left to cut my budget. I have free internet. My only phone is Tracfone that is $19 every 3 months - and I only keep that so I can talk to my dying father every once in a while. We don't use the air conditioning, have no debts other than a 25 yr old mortgage on a very small house, and my food budget HAS to stay under $40 a week for both of us.

So that is where I'm coming from. If that makes me one of "them" or one of "us" I have no idea. You seem like you think you are qualified to pass judgement on me so knock yourself out.

[crikkett]

14. I'm not qualified to pass judgement on anyone.

I'm sensitive to dehumanization, and I'm perfectly within the bounds of ethics and manners to ask what you mean when you write in a public forum, and to question or criticize the use of specific language.

Good luck to you and your husband. I'm sorry for your hardship, I won't bother you with my own. I hope you find relief in the near future. Thank God for free Internet, because there's nothing worthwhile on TV.

[Hannah Bell]

10. it's not "their land," that's where they've got it wrong.

they just wok for the owners.

[Kip Humphrey]

13. Want improvement? Start by banning agribusiness chemicals from the San Juaquin Valley. Then,

you may have a chance.