Quarantine

Quarantine

I drove through White Center today, like I have done so many times before.  The streets were empty, but the sidewalks were full.  I came through on the main drag, past all the boarded up shop fronts, the closed taverns, and the empty parking stalls on both sides.  Waiting at the light at Roxbury, I saw a young man sitting on the curb outside the empty bank, all folded in on himself in a way that can only mean a major rush on heroin.  I passed on, did an illegal youie at a four-way stop and backed in to a stall outside the smoke shop, which was boarded up, but open.  I noticed as I backed in a young man advancing up the sidewalk with a peculiar dancing gait, with a look on his face as if he was so blissed out on whatever he ate that his joy could not be contained in just a smile.  He went into the shop next door as I stepped into the smoke shop for a pouch of American Spirit and some papers.  I was on an errand of mercy for a shut in with vices.  They quickly ejected him and he wandered off back down the street, full of bliss but without purpose..

As I drove through town, I realized one thing.  When the Coronavirus Quarantine hit, everybody who had a home went there and stayed.  Who is left on the streets are the people who have nowhere else  to go, and I’m here to tell you there are a lot more of them when all of “us” are out of the picture.  The parking lots along 15^th Ave, the bus stops and the alleys are busy today.  There is a line outside the food bank.

On the other side of town, there is a line to get into Costco.  Since everyone stands six feet apart, the line stretches from the entrance out to the far exit from the parking lot.  The difference is in the clothes.  The people in line at Costco are clean and well-dressed.  The people on the streets of White Center, and Burien, and Renton, and Kent, and anywhere else you want to look are scruffy and dirty, wearing the clothes they slept in last night, maybe on that bus stop bench.

Since I like to stay off the freeway, I take the back roads through the neighborhoods on the way home.  I see them, and I thank my lucky stars, and I scan the faces for one of my old childhood buddies.  I grew up in White Center.  Smack took a lot of them.  The ones that lived didn’t go far.

When the full realization of the damage done by a virus to our world sets in, there is a strong chance we will not be able to get back to where things were before.  It’s going to take time, and effort, and collective energy.

There is also a chance we could fall apart badly and take everyone back to the ‘30s for a while.  Or back to the Stone Age. One thing that is made clear by this crisis is that many people are living right on the edge, where one false move or missed payment will put them out on the street with everyone else, to prey or be preyed upon.  This is what income inequality means at street level.

But there is also a chance, just maybe, that we could learn our lesson from the last few years and band together with our fellow American Citizens and put this country back on track towards a progressive vision of fairness and equality that up to now has only been talked about.  We need to get it done.  It will take all of us working together.  :-{)}