Informant38

The Austin Chronicle Columns: Letters at 3AM-Michael Ventura the Bronx. In that house I was learning that people who are well-fed and who do not live in fear of eviction, nor fear of the electricity and heat being shut off for non-payment, nor fear of violence, people who'd never feared anything poor people fear -- even such people suffer terribly, are frightened of each other, frightened of the world, frightened of themselves. I can not express how astounded I was at this discovery, and how difficult it was to believe, even with the evidence every day in front of my eyes. Safety was not a human possibility. Money could not solve fear or suffering, and would not have saved my family from fear and suffering. In some ways this was the most surprising lesson of my life.