Letters to the Editor

• Who's Intolerant?

  [Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  It's become common in some circles to describe reasonable discussion of the role of wealth and poverty and just plain old being-middle-class as engaging in class warfare. But there is a price to be paid for being less than upper middle class in this society. It's taken me five decades and some reflection on life to see just how significant that effect can be.

  That being said, has it ever occurred to Renegade that maybe, just maybe, the Oleander Queen has an honest stake in not having a dilapidated house across the street?

  Or that maybe having her the value of her house depreciated by thousands of dollars isn't just about snobbishness but about defending an asset that quite probably took many years of hard work to attain?

  Or that maybe planting shrubs in the old woman's yard was a constructive way to resolve a problem that could have been resolved in a troublesome way like calling Code Enforcement or filing a nuisance lawsuit?

  For those of us who have struggled damn hard for a lifetime just to hang on by a slim thread to a meager lifestyle and to provide for our families, class warfare is manifested in many forms. It's working class people who live in neighborhoods with cars on blocks and dogs running loose and ratty-ass couches on the porches, not the rich. Maybe those working class folks don't think a dilapidated house in the neighborhood is a quint artifact.

  Renegade also might think a bit about self-righteousness instead of just "letting go". That's where her growth lies.

  Permalink Thursday, March 27, 2008 02:27 PM