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You saw one like this just about every Christmas season in the Fifties and Sixties when I was growing up; a Christmas-morning fire in an impoverished, usually minority female-headed household with multiple fatalities. Meager gifts under a shoddily-improvised tree that dead children never got the chance to open.
It probably will still happen from time to time, but with diminishing frequency; and the basic progress behind this betterment of the human condition has nothing to do with politics or ideology. It came about because of small measures by all of us, aided by responsible journalism attached to no agenda other than better treatment of our fellow man.
Almost entirely, that is: because one of the biggest advances along these lines came with the opening of more-challenging, and better-paying opportunities in both the public and private sectors to those formerly excluded by "gentlemens'(?) agreements" between those in position sf power -- not just urban politicians and private-sector managers, but occasionally with the cooperation of labor union officials.
And it shouldn't be forgotten that the expansion of educational opportunities also played an important part.
So I hope that some of us will pause in this holiday season to ponder the sad stories that no longer are so frequently written.
For all you peddlers of one-line short-think answers, the point is this:
Human progress is not instantaneous; the technology behind smoke detectors has been around for at least the better part of a century, but was expensive when it began -- it took time for it to develop into something suited for a larger, residence-centered mass market.
And in too may of those bitter stories I recall from my teens, Jim Crow laws were a factor; laws designed to keep those with dreams from advancing, and usually supported most strongly by the not-too-bright who were only one rung higher on the economic ladder.
This is the single most positive outcome of the "second round" of the civil rights struggle 1964-1975; not as many bitter stories had to be written, and no single group within the process had to be blamed by partisans with an axe to grind. But it's not going to draw much attention in the present polarization.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 12-26-2018 at 10:20 AM..
You saw one like this just about every Christmas season in the Fifties and Sixties when I was growing up; a Christmas-morning fire in an impoverished, usually minority female-headed household with multiple fatalities. Meager gifts under a shoddily-improvised tree that dead children never got the chance to open.
It probably will still happen from time to time, but with diminishing frequency; and the basic progress behind this betterment of the human condition has nothing to do with politics or ideology. It came about because of small measures by all of us, aided by responsible journalism attached to no agenda other than better treatment of our fellow man.
Almost entirely, that is: because one of the biggest advances along these lines came with the opening of more-challenging, and better-paying opportunities in both the public and private sectors to those formerly excluded by "gentlemens'(?) agreements" between those in position sf power -- not just urban politicians and private-sector managers, but occasionally with the cooperation of labor union officials.
And it shouldn't be forgotten that the expansion of educational opportunities also played an important part.
So I hope that some of us will pause in this holiday season to ponder the sad stories that no longer are so frequently written.
I don't even a full carafe of coffee will make any sense of out this.
There are always Christmas time fires around here in apartments in poor areas. Usually caused by carelessness. Then the collections for the families. Always happens.
Silly me. I thought a clarification would actually ... um ... clarify.
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