I walked down to Giant Eagle on Cedar ave. today for food. Nothing like a good pandemic to show us income inequality. Those who don’t have their needs met don’t care about “practicing social distancing” or the stigma of breaking it. They are dissatisfied with their lives and are pushed to the edge.

It certainly makes me much more aware of my surroundings, the Allegheny County jail released 700+ inmates after all. And if recent headlines are accurate, they don’t seem to have the tightest ship around.

As I’m walking down, there’s a group of ~12 people on the corner saying something on a speaker. What was it? I don’t know, I had my headphones in; tuning it all out. And there’s part of the bigger danger. Not hearing the underlying message from the marginalized.

I’m not out of the clear: it’s a few missteps for me to be in the same position as they are.

And it’s true for you, too.

We have lots of confidence in our system because like footprints on a beach or the bones of the Neanderthals, time makes event detection and subsequent awareness more tricky. People have started their lives here in this city and gone on to see the entire world. Some started big music careers and live in LA and know all the celebrities you’ve only seen on TV. Others fell through the cracks of our system and lived their lives here start to finish. But you couldn’t see any of this by looking at the city. Our eyes don’t give us history-vision. Just clues. Some of which are ambiguous.

But the haves and have-nots have always been with us in our society, it’s a system that keeps getting grandfathered in. I don’t think it necessarily needs to be that way; it just currently is.

I wonder how I might be able to continue to do my part and make a small change in my corner of the world?

A slice of Northside inequality

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