[Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]”

― John F. Kennedy

The title of this “note” is a quote. I wasn’t alive during President Kennedy’s years, but somehow I think being poor may have been better then. Watching world economic talks lately and/or any political talks and perusing the internet (yes, I KNOW, don’t believe everything I see on the internet or for Pete’s sake hear from a politician!) I’m becoming morose. OK, for those of you who don’t really know me well, some people used to see me as the glass half full type of person or tell me to take off my rose-colored glasses. It’s just getting so BAD out there, and well right here. The huge gap between the rich and poor.

It’s here in Bemidji, too. That’s why most of you don’t see it, won’t believe me, and just want me to shut up and stop posting about being poor. We have our own gap of rich who want to hide the homeless and poor and the poor who want to do whatever they can to not LOOK poor. When you look at me do you see poor? How many people walking on the sidewalk look poor to you? I was going to ask how many people shopping at Walmart look poor, but many people who read my posts would never be caught shopping THERE. If you can shop your conscience and choose not to shop at Walmart, you are just not poor enough. If you can afford to shop at Harmony, Luekens, Marketplace, Menards or anywhere else without using food stamps or ONLY buying what’s on sale, YOU are the people who need to be reading this. If you don’t have to go to the Food Shelf YOU should be reading this.

I mean, I like President Obama. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. I believe he is doing well with what he was given. He’s trying. He has great ideas, but VERY few people are allowing him to accomplish his ideas to help the ever-receding middle class he’s always talking about. The rich have stomped the middle class into the ground. There aren’t many of them left. According to Jim Rickards, the CIA’s Asymmetric Warfare Adviser, Pres. Obama may have to stop using the term very soon. He’s predicting another very long depression, coming soon, where those middle class will become the low-class, and the now poor- or low-class will be, well, destitute, homeless, and dying. He is also warning of WWIII, but that’s another post. I know you’ll think me crazy, but I am also dreaming of this. Other “empaths” and “gifted” people are having dreams. In the last 2 days I’ve spoken to two other people right here in Bemidji who are also having visions of this coming economic depression. Now, being surrounded by 3 Native American Reservations who am I to not listen to their healers when one talks of this? Today my conversation centered around how the rich are systematically killing off the poor. I figure it’s so they don’t have us on their conscience when they put up walls to block us out. So they don’t have to look at us, watch us die from starvation, when this depression and war hits. They will live inside the walls and be rich and cozy. The stuff of science fiction is coming faster than we think. They CAN afford it.

Enough of science fiction, whether you believe it or not something’s coming. Who knows if it will be 6 months, a year, or 5 years from now, but I think it’s time for us to get together as a community. Yes, there are a few spatterings of community gardens here and there around town. You can pay for classes to learn how to can or freeze fruit and veggies or how to grow a garden or how to make a rain barrel. The specific word to focus on there is “pay.” How many ways can I say it? Poor people NEED this information, but can not afford to pay for it. There are a lot of people out there that have a lot of skills about how to do things the old fashioned ways that don’t need electric tools, or even how to make tools (which people might find handy in a depression,) but poor people can not afford to pay for this information. This lovely ObamaCare Insurance will probably go away, so being able to identify medicinal plants or grow certain herbs may come in handy. Poor people can’t afford to pay to learn this. You think we have some homeless people now? If a huge depression does hit, if social security checks go the way of bye bye, and there is no more county money to hand out then how many more homeless will Bemidji have? I’ll be one more. My son and I will lose our home. How many people are living in homes in Bemidji right now with unused rooms? Think anyone will share? I’ve already offered my empty bedroom, but wait, I’m losing my house so that doesn’t count.