Month: November 2009
Savagery and Silence in the First World
In America – in my country – I fear we are losing the battle for our humanity. Some say we have already lost it.
Deep down I think they may be right.
Such is the level of violence, voyeurism and detachment displayed this October in Richmond, California, when at least two dozen students cheered, laughed or simply stood by and watched as a 15-year old girl was repeatedly raped, beaten and brutalized by an “unknown number of assailants.”
This horrific act of terrorism took place in the parking lot of Richmond High School, just yards away from where the school was holding its annual homecoming dance.
How Detroit, the Motor City, turned into a ghost town
Excerpt from The Guardian Unlimited
Try telling Brother Jerry Smith that the recession in America has ended. As scores of people queued up last week at the soup kitchen which the Capuchin friar helps run in Detroit, the celebrations on Wall Street in New York seemed from another world.
The hungry and needy come from miles around to get a free healthy meal. Though the East Detroit neighbourhood the soup kitchen serves has had it tough for decades, the recession has seen almost any hope for anyone getting a job evaporate. Neither is there any sign that jobs might come back soon.