"Sitting around guys," keep that -- and September 11 -- in mind, though neither this nor Hebert's column concerns some potential attack from al Qaeda.
All of us have heard at least passing reference to the Latin Kings, the Crips and the Bloods, to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), to the Norteà ±os and the Sureà ±os, or the Sureà ±os' offshoot, the Sur-13 that can be found in every urban center in the country, even in erstwhile sedate Chelsea, Michigan. We've all seen the walls and posts where they've tagged their turf, we know how ruthlessly they defend it, and how local cops prefer to not patrol at night the areas under their control. There are parts of LA, of Oakland, of Chicago, of Philadelphia, of Detroit that fit the description. I wonder, how many have heard of the Hidden Valley Kings, the Charlotte, North Carolina street gang that was recently featured on the History Channel, and that has made of that city the most gang-ridden in the US? "Sitting around guys." All are part of that tenth decile.
Whether from the Right or the Left, Republican or Democratic leaders, or Tea Baggers, or Obama, or media pundits, every word issued has been about the middle class, how it has been devastated by the Great Recession, and what might be done to fix it. Not one word has been even whispered concerning the horrid travails suffered by that tenth decile, America's now extant, grown to huge "sitting around guys."
For all who weren't alive to recall them, I strongly recommend typing "1960s urban riots" into the Google search box. Detroit. Newark. Watts. Just a few. Exploding communities that had been on a long fuse of frustration. Then, even for minorities, the devastation that was visited on their sense of self esteem, their dignity, as a consequence of having long endured racial and ethnic stereotyping and discrimination, was not directly related to an excessively high level of unemployment, though the employment options available to this demographic certainly was a significant contributing factor that exacerbated the extant feelings of resentment.
We damned sure ought not to be ignoring those Americans, trapped in that tenth decile, as we have. From, as Janice Joplin sang in "Me and Bobby McGee," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FMhnl0__Vo ) ". . . freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose," I earnestly recommend against tangling with anyone who feels he or she has "nothin' left to lose." They can sew explosives into their underwear, wrap their torsos with high explosives, fly airplanes into buildings, and burn cities to the ground.
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