Diversity, it’s on Tap

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Diversity,  It’s on Tap

On Nov 19, 2022 a 45 year old Army vet named Richard Fierro was with his wife Jessica,  their daughter Kassie,  and some friends at Club Q,  a gay bar in Colorado Springs.  They were on the dance floor when a man armed with an AR15 -type weapon entered the club and started shooting.

Fierro,  a Bronze Star recipient who had served 15 years in the military with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,  showed his courage that night.  He and another patron tackled the shooter and brought him down.   Five people – including  Kassie Fierro’s boyfriend – died and two dozen were injured,  but the body count would have been much higher had Fierro not acted.  “I needed to save my family,”  he said later ,  “and my family at that time was everybody in that room.”

Richard and Jessica Fierro,  who are Latino,  are the owners of Atrevida Beer Company,  a Colorado Springs brewery.  They sell not only their craft beer,  but T-shirts and other merchandise that celebrate their philosophy of inclusion and bear the motto Diversity, It’s on Tap.

With hate crimes and mass shootings on the rise,  our country often seems more disunited than united,  but blessedly some of the good and the brave are still among us.

Richard & Jessica Fierro

– Dana Susan Lehrman

Mr Swift Suggests

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Jonathan Swift's expression of modern day homelessness

 

A Modest Proposal to Address the Problem of Homelessness in the Modern World

By Jonathan Swift’s Ghost

I am Jonathan Swift, and I have returned from the dead to address the most pressing issue of our time: homelessness. I am not here to offer a serious solution, but rather to satirize the absurdity of the problem and the inadequacy of our responses to it.

In my day, homelessness was a serious problem, but it was nothing compared to the scope of the crisis today. In the United States alone, there are over 550,000 people who are homeless on any given night. And yet, our politicians and policymakers seem content to do nothing about it.

One of the most common excuses for inaction is that homelessness is a complex problem with no easy solutions. But is it really that complex? Isn’t it simply a matter of providing people with a place to live?

Of course, there are other factors that contribute to homelessness, such as mental illness, addiction, and poverty. But these are all problems that can be addressed with the right resources and policies.

The real reason why we don’t end homelessness is because we don’t care enough about the people who are homeless. We see them as a nuisance, a burden, or even a threat. We dehumanize them and make them invisible.

If only homelessness was a problem that could be solved by looking away rather it is a problem that is staring us in the face every day.

So, here is my modest proposal for addressing the problem of homelessness:

We should start by rounding up all of the homeless people in the country and putting them in camps. We can call these camps “Homelessvilles.”

The Homelessvilles would be self-contained communities, with their own housing, schools, hospitals, and businesses. Residents of the Homelessvilles would be required to work, and they would be paid a small stipend for their labor.

The Homelessvilles would be funded by a tax on the wealthy. After all, the wealthy are the ones who have benefited the most from the economic system that has created homelessness.

Once the Homelessvilles are up and running, we can start to think about ways to transition people back into the mainstream society. But for now, the important thing is to get them off the streets and into a safe and supportive environment.

Brass Ankle

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Rainbow Row,  Charleston SC

Brass Ankle

I was raised in the Bronx, New York in 50s and 60s when the demographics were such that families in the  borough were predominantly Jewish – like mine – or Catholic.   In fact my friend Kathie, whose family was Moravian,  tells me she was often the only WASP in her class!

And growing up in those relatively innocent post-war years I don’t remember being affected,  or even aware of antisemitism.

Earlier, during WW II my dad served in the Army and was stationed at the Charleston, SC port of embarkation.   As an officer he was given housing and allowed to bring family,  and there in an Army hospital I was born.  (See Captain)

My father spoke little about the war and regrettably I didn’t ask,  and I don’t know if my folks encountered antisemitism on that Charleston Army base.  But I think they did not as my mother spoke of friendships with both Jewish and non-Jewish families,  and of the celebration for my father at the Officers Club on the night I was born.

But my mother Jessie,  the daughter of Jewish,  Eastern European immigrants,  happened to be dark complexioned with dark eyes and very dark hair.   And as a baby I had a head of dark curls,  and both of us tanned by the Carolina sun.

Pushing me in my baby carriage my mother often heard taunts of “brass ankle”  and  “pickaninny”.  The former she learned was a pejorative term for a Creole or a woman of mixed race;  and the latter a derogatory term for a Black child.

While we were fighting hate abroad,  here at home hate continued to raise its ugly head,  and sadly it does still.

Jessie and me,  Charleston 1945

– Dana Susan Lehrman