Took a walk.  Bought a pack of cigarettes and sat on concrete stairs of a missing building on the corner of Connecticut and Military and watched people drive home.

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“Cashout” by Fugazi

On the morning of the first eviction

They carried out the wishes of the landlord and his son

Furniture’s out on the sidewalk next to the family

That little piggy went to the market so they’re kicking out everyone

Talking about process and dismissal

Forced removal of the people on the corner

Shelter and location, everybody wants somewhere

The elected are such willing partners

Look who’s buying all their tickets to the game

Development wants what development gets, it’s official

Development wants this neighborhood gone so the city just wants the same

Talking about process and dismissal

Forced removal of the people on the corner

Everybody wants somewhere

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People aren’t really from here.  They did what I did.  They moved to Washington for a job.  They will make a paycheck for awhile, make some decisions, and move out to other suburbs.  Some of these people may even get involved in government, local government and start making decisions for other parts of the city they have never been to.  All they know is the Northwest part of the red-line and parts of the blue-line near the transfer stations.  They don’t know D.C.  They don’t care to know.  They may travel to the southwest and southeast metro stations with their coworkers in hardhats, suits, plans.  They want to make things better but better for them really means more expensive, forcing the true residents of the city away.  Nicer buildings mean higher rent which means more trips to Whole Foods and Ikea.  Maybe a cruise in the summer to poor islands in the Caribbean where their children will look out onto hurricane and policy-rattled neighborhoods on the coast and think “these people have got it right” then stare contently into the sunset from the comfort of the lido deck.  They don’t care about the people who live here.  They don’t realize that there is something going on.  Something bad.  Something they are causing.  When you take away something from someone who has very little, they push back.  Then you take away a family’s home, a community’s neighborhood, survival instincts rage and people are killed, murdered.  Hatred multiplies and a city is divided by the spastic rainbow of the subway map.  What little is left is protected with firepower.  People stop talking to each other.  People stop smiling.  They get in their black cars, put on talk radio, get falsely flustered by less immediate problems and run home to eat and rest to do the same thing tomorrow.

People and places are nice here but there is an invisible wave of guilt and suppressed anger in the air, on the sidewalks, under bridges, in empty fountains, stuck in the leaves and spewing out the backs of buses, churning in gears and boiling in streetlights.  Everyone is whispering “help” without opening their mouths, hoping that someone else will get rid of the feeling, the feeling that none of this can last.  A city, a country cannot survive forever this way.  But for some reason they find it not as important, they convince themselves of that then turn their backs.

This isn’t about you.  This isn’t about me.  This is about the children that are being hurt for no reason and don’t even know it.  This is not about the future of America.  This is about the future of the human race.  The future of happiness.