From what we hear about our future and the national debt ceiling crisis, it sounds like we will be tightening our belts. The Great Recession appears to be deepening. Fear not, we will get through it. As an aging person, I have a clear memory of the Great Depression of the 1930s, when we were all poor as mice. We learned to work together and help each other. Anonymity? We had none of it. We cared for each other. We grew our own food. One corn planter served five or more neighbors. WPA and CCC (government public works projects) put us in touch with food distribution.
The country joined the Allies to bring down Nazism on borrowed money; borrowed it from ourselves through school savings (a dime a week) and War Bonds. We all sacrificed for the defense of our values. We prayed and stayed together for a common justice. We didn’t buy what we couldn’t pay for, nor did credit cards bury us in debt. Could we not all try to live more simply so that others may simply live?
Alvin Fischer
Vancouver
