A Sign of the Times

I know everyone is dissatisfied with our new administration, but I gotta just say, the state of affairs was a pretty shitty inheritance to begin with. As a high school graduate in 1991, my senior year saaw the destruction of the Berlin Wall. For our 10th anniversary we saw the destruction of the World Trade Towers and the end of any false sense of security that we had as Americans. What will our 20 anniversary bring? I can only imagine, but I've been thinking about it ever since I've started work on the reunion. Yesterday, I went out to run some errands and I saw a sight I'd seen many times before, but for some reason it seemed completely new to me. I live out in the country, in farmland, and at the four way stop up the road, where there is a big gravel flat patch, there was a car parked. This in and of itself wasn't unusual, but there was a new factor that was something I'd never associated with this "neck of the woods." Standing by the road, family gathered around, was a man holding a sign that said "Family in Need." Now, I've seen people holding up signs regarding their own destitution before, especially after liVing in New York, but that's something we normally associate with single individuals. Maybe because if we think of them simply as bums without families that don't live up to societal responsibilities then we don't have to think of all the people that may have been in that person's life. I'd never seen an entire family of "beggars." I know full well that there are millions of people out there, families, living in poverty. Many of my students live in these conditions. There was just something about that scene that struck me, I felt the need to pull over and take a picture, as it seemed to sum up precisely the historical moment so many of us seem to find ourselves in, although we are lucky enough to ponder it and appreciate that it is not us. This family had their car and each other, and they banded together on a hot day to ask for help. Although I wish for the American family to become strong and united, I certainly have to say that I hope never to see it in this circumstance again.