Morning Thoughts: January 10, 2018

I was lucky. I paid off what I thought was a massive student loan debt pretty quick after I graduated in 1966. It was $180.00. That would be, maybe, $1,400.00 today, but it seemed like a lot to me then. Despite being transferred to 1A Draft Status, I managed to land a job in San Francisco and paid the debt before I was called up to serve.

Lately, a lot of dots have been connected in my head. How are college debts, statistical “think-speech,” the words of the Galilean, and photos of immigrant parents being torn from the arms of their children related? In my aged mind, they are.

First, in my early career, I dealt a lot with cities that were seeking help through the community development block grant program issued to the state from the federal government. The funds existed to help cities with eligible programs, one of which was to provide aid, comfort, and relief to families who met a defined standard of living on low or moderate family incomes. Yes, the ones the Galilean called “the least of those among us.” Back in those distant times, there were those in government who wanted to see the country guided by Christian standards.

Yeah. It was a long time ago.

For those who worked within the program, our job was to care for the health, welfare, and safety of the American people, a disarmingly simple charge. It guides, or let me say should guide, every aspect of my profession. Right.

In a move that still burns my cheeks with shame, we developed jargon that allowed us to speak in terms less understandable by the very public we were supposed to serve. It also promoted the de-humanization of our efforts. The community development block grant program was no longer a source of relief and succor. It was “The CDBG Program,” a source of free money. The recipients were no longer those who suffered, longed for safety, and mourned for being poor in spirit, or more precisely, just poor. They were “LMI families (LMIFs),” who provided a statistical gateway to federal funds.

Some even vulgarized the term to "LMIs." I agree. I don't think the Galilean would have used that term.

My thesis today is that the very term “low and moderate-income families” (or individuals) is no longer operative in America. We have demonized the non-rich to the point where gradations of that richness must be simplified.

I propose that the term be simplified to “not wealthy families.” Now we can more accurately classify families who don’t meet income levels as “NWF.” The others could be called, oh, I don’t know, maybe “those in control.”

NWFs and TICs. Isn't that much simpler?

NWF children will encounter a monetary “fine” for seeking a college education. They already do. Now called “student loans,” in the future they will be placed under the NWF Monetary Education Reparation Demand Enforcement program. The same type assessment could apply to immigrant families who want to apply for citizenship by paying a fine for the crime of overstaying.

NWF members who fail to meet health standards would be assigned to a Diseased Adult and Children Health Assemblage Unit.

And so on. Sometimes I don’t think things are as complicated as we tend to make them.

Hmmm