Losing Homes and Lives

6Oct2008 Author: Mother Jones, RN

Photograph by Dorothea Lange

Do you remember seeing pictures of people jumping out of windows during the stock market crash of 1929? I’m no economist, but I’ve always believed that the health of a nation is reflected in the health of its citizens. It’s not rocket science. Happy citizens living in a healthy society generally enjoy good mental health. The news filtering up from our emergency room this weekend wasn’t good. It seems that history is beginning to repeat itself.

If you really want to get the scoop on what’s going on in your community, just start eavesdropping on the conversations going on in your local emergency room. Police officers and EMTs that drop by tell ER nurses and doctors about what’s happening in town. The news this week wasn’t good. Several people from our community have committed suicide within the last two weeks. EMTs and police who responded to the 911 calls told nurses that the victims had just lost their jobs and were facing foreclosure on their homes. The stories reminded me of the 90 year old from Ohio who tried killing herself as she was being evicted from her home. Personally, I think the wrong people are killing themselves, and I’d like to invite the Wall Street A-Holes who created this economic mess to start jumping out of windows just like they did in the good old days. As a side note, it took about 25 years for the stock market to recover from the crash of 1929. I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better.

5 Responses to “Losing Homes and Lives”

Laura Klein RN
October 6th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
As a med/surg nurse at a nonprofit, my overwhelming concern is the up and coming flu season. We have already seen several serious pnuemonias which would have been nipped in the bud if the patient’s had gone to their doctors. These patients weren’t the people without PCP’s. Nope, they were elderly medicare patients. But food is expensive, fuel is costly and co pays have increased. I’m worried people will make a choice between food and the flu vaccine. My guess is our youthful under or noninsured poppulation will spike upwards, too. I saw this happen in 2001. This could prove to be a busy winter on the heels of an eerily quiet summer.

Now is the time for all of us to be kinder and gentler with one another.
christine
October 6th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Dorothea Lange is one of my favorite photographers!!

On a serious note, the situation the 90 year old woman was in has a lot of questions surrounding it. Estimating by the date she and her husband purchased the home, and her current age, and the fact that her financial troubles started after her husband died when she “refinanced the house several times” someone was taking advantage of her. There is no way a 90 year old woman should have been allowed to refinance several times when there is no way the loan could have been repaid. Who ever pursued and approved that loan should be prosecuted because it clearly did not meet suitability standards.
The Curmudgeon
October 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Christine makes a number of excellent points. Similar stories have been reported in Chicago — no suicide attempts, though.

And I recently read an article that said there were really very few jumpers in the 1920s — that an isolated incident or two were picked up by Will Rogers and others and became a part of American folklore.

Still, we don’t have to tell that to the Wall Street bankers now, do we?
bone_collector
October 9th, 2008 at 2:56 am
of course when Lehman brother CEO just felt terrible after earning his hundred millions are plain people on the street will be left to die…it is a cruel world out there..and greed will never stop this from happening again in the near future…
Rhea
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
All those foolish moves by the investment firms and banks led to this disaster. Housing prices go up and down. How could they forget that?!