Congress is Letting People Die
What Are We Doing About It?
Congress is letting people die.
Tell a friend.
Okay, so I’m the bad guy
for telling the truth.
SO BE IT.
People are losing their homes,
hundreds of people
are in virtual Zoom sessions
as they’re evicted by judges
into the streets,
without money,
without resources,
without alternatives.
during a pandemic
becoming MORE
vulnerable
to a disease spreading like wildfire
among a populace barely alive
catching aflame because
the system dried them out
left them vulnerable and
didn’t choose to save them;
their lives a pre-existing condition.
They let them die.
Congress could have saved hundreds of thousands of people, lives of American citizens who did not expect to die because of the incompetence of the people they elected to office; and they could have been consequential, dare I say heroic, if they had acted at any of a half a dozen times with humanity instead of contempt this year and instead did nothing.
The only thing spreading faster
is the Congressional indifference
to reaching across the aisle and passing
legislation to save the economy
With a stimulus equal to the size of the problem
Protecting the economy
they love so well
by saving the people
who compose the economy
they say they want to be saving.
But thousands have
already been evicted
every day, across the nation
a powder-keg smolders
This happens thousands
of times a day
all day
all across the nation.
Where the homeless will become the next to die.
As Congress
went home
to their families
to their dinners
to their privilege
to ignore the plights
the hungers,
the desperation
the burning uncertainty
of tens of millions;
Just in time
for Thanksgiving.
And a long, dark, winter for the rest of us.
Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California. He is the vice-president of the California Writers Club, Berkeley Branch and one of the founding members of the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop in Oakland. He is also the Chapter 510, Department of Make-Believe Teaching Fellow for 2019.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram. He is also the creator of a series of educational articles called Writing Craft: Mastering the Urge to Write.
