I DON'T KNOW how soon I will be posting here again as I am temporarily disabled by a groin sprain, the diverse agonies of which include moments of the most intense pain I have ever experienced -- my "ever" including a simultaneously impacted and abscessed wisdom tooth the sudden onset of which, on Labor Day Sunday of 1969, was so devastating I passed out in the emergency room of New York City's Beth Israel Hospital.
But the only metaphor I can conjure up that even approaches accurate description of the peak magnitude of this 2018 pain is the ultimately inconceivable agony of some sadist digging with the point of a rusty 12-penny nail in the naked nerve tissue at the core of an untreated cavity in an abscessed and impacted tooth -- and then multiply the hurt times itself to maybe the 20th power.
Fortunately, unlike the constant and seemingly relentless agony inflicted by the 1969 wisdom tooth emergency until it was blessedly relieved by BI-provided codeine, the most intense moments of today's groin-sprain pain afflict me only when I sit on or try to rise from the way-too-low toilet-seats Puyallup's mercilessly profiteering Independent Living Incorporated imposed on Washington State's nonprofit Senior Housing Assistance Group when the appropriately acronymed ILI -- revealingly pronounced "eye lie" as if to tauntingly admit Capitalism's ultimate truth -- "renovated" these apartments.
That project began in 2014, continued through last year and included wrenching disruptions of our lives by temporary evictions which -- as if we had any doubts -- showed us the utter contempt with which the capitalists view lower-income elders. Though the evictions were of only one to three days' duration, they mandated exactly the same preparations as a permanent change of address. Nor were we reimbursed for our momentary homelessness.
Moreover the renovation work the evictions were to enable was delayed without explanation at least three times. Hence because of the repeated packing and unpacking so necessitated, the evictions were at least thrice as disruptive as a permanent move -- often even more so for any number of reasons including the discomfort ILI's hurry-up-and-wait demands knowingly inflicted on physically disabled tenants. Such is the morally imbecilic savagery of USian Biblical Capitalism.
As to my present-day circumstances, their negative aspects are but additional reminders of the same Christian Capitalist moral imbecility. Capitalist governance -- its tax revenues and managerial skills exclusively dedicated to expanding Capitalism and boosting its obscene profiteering -- is utterly indifferent to the misery so inflicted.
Indeed I survive only because of the blessed volunteer helpfulness of my Communist Labor Party comrades, two additional local friends and three fellow SHAG tenants, to all of whom my deepest gratitude and most profound thanks. Unless my heart quits unexpectedly from the literally breath-stealing stress of fighting the groin-sprain pain, I will most likely outlive the hardships inflicted by our nation's implicitly genocidal limits on medical and dental care, which means I will return to posting Dispatches as soon as possible. Meanwhile my most profuse apologies for the interruption of these news briefings, analyses and commentaries. Updates will follow as events unfold.
LB/9 January 2018
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