In a Beautiful Place

I am disappointed in the federal government of the United States of America. Not that I've never been disappointed before. I am disappointed in the population of Americans who continue to walk around with an elitist attitude about how "great" our country is while we disparage nations still developing that are not up to our standards of living.We need to do a better job of understanding our privilege while acknowledging that the privilege does not make us better than the people in another country in any way, shape, or form. The prevalence of racism here in the United States is one part of the problem. The other is the very denial of that racism. Thinking oneself is better than another because of skin color, religion, sexuality, or nation of origin is racist and the blatant ignorance of this fact causes me much grief. Being a white woman, I do not have the firsthand experience that people of color and immigrants to the United States experience. But that does not mean I...

There's a community in Illinois, across the river from St. Louis, Missouri called East St. Louis. For years it has been a dumping ground for chemical companies like Monsanto. The city doesn't have the financial ability to re-do the systems that need re-doing and gets thrown to the wayside because the state of Illinois doesn't want to throw any more money into suck a poverty-stricken area, saying that the money is there--they just need to "help themselves." As a result, sewage lines the streets and the ground is contaminated from chemical spills, sewage breaks, and trash that no longer gets collected because the city can't afford to keep up with trash collection. It's a dump. The schools that do exist in East St. Louis are terrible; they don't have enough school supplies, aren't funded enough to get an adequate number of teachers, and dropout rates are nearly at 50%. Conditions in the school and the community are deplorable, and this place exists ...