Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Moving Day



This photo was taken in La Coruna, Spain in January of 2007.
Notice the hole where the building used to be.

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Tomorrow will be moving day for the thousands of Americans for whom the nation's mortgage crisis is more than simply headline news.
Tomorrow families and singles, couples and friends will pack as much as they can carry into cars, vans, and onto the backs of pick-up trucks and bid farewell to homes they love.
Homes they can no longer afford.
Homes they never could afford but dreamed themselves into.
Tomorrow will be moving day -
and the end of so many dreams for so many of my fellow Americans.


Tomorrow those people will go to work and school as usual.
They will talk to their workmates and classmates as usual.
They will eat lunch and drink coffee and make small talk as usual.
And they will sneak into bathroom stalls and supply closets to mourn.
Because there will be a hole in their hearts, in their lives,
in their minds, in their spirits
- and in the soul of this very nation -
where their homes used to be.


Homelessness. Poverty.
Sorrow. Fear.
Loneliness. Emptiness.
Devastation. Desperation.
Helplessness. Hopelessness.


On May 31st, the next group of foreclosed homeowners will join the ranks of the homeless. And more on June 30th, July 31st - and beyond.

May God have mercy on them.
And on us all - for "they" are us.

3 comments:

jmgb said...

mercy indeed.

for but the grace of god we all fall.

Itiel said...

Yes, they are us.

Amy said...

I am so disheartened by the number of foreclosures I see listed in the newspaper each day. I am starting to mourn my own simple, but cherished childhood home, as my dad ages; but I really feel for those children whose treasured spaces will be history.