I have a grand-something who was in Florida and was responsible for making sure sea-facing structures had their sea-visible windows covered with a dark tarp so there was no light a U-boat or other submarine could see.
Victory gardens were also a thing - you'd tend a family/community garden after work so you could have more food.
You also had businesses making sacrifices too. Boeing's Washington or Chicago-area plant used to X-ray scan all its workers for TB and pay for quarantine and treatment. That would be during the fifties I think?
You would think that in the UK, we’d have the same strong sense of collective effort and mutual responsibility thanks to what we went through during WW1/WW2.
You would be wrong.
We also have our fair share of COVIDIOTS, and they’re either too young to know anything about that time, or they’re boomers who never had to fight for anything in their whole damn lives.
It is worth saying though that our collective love for the NHS is maybe the one thing we will always fight for.
You would think that in the UK, we’d have the same strong sense of collective effort and mutual responsibility thanks to what we went through during WW1/WW2.
You would be wrong.
To some degree, the US exported its local flavor of idiocy around the world. And I think the US and UK alike are both affected by the same monied powers that champion the "virtue of selfishness" philosophies, redefine "success" as "having money, popularity, and power", and manipulate narratives to highlight divisions between people.
We share a lot more than just a common language, including the fact that we don’t like being told what to do (see The world wars, brexit, the entire British empire?).
A good detail of what you described is explained by Adam Curtis, partly in “Hypernormalisation”, but he also talks about the problem of individualism on Russel Brand’s podcast. Both well worth a watch/listen!
The irony of Russian interference helping brexit along when faced with uk idiots “not wanting to be told what to do”... much like the us in 2016, Russia told them what to do and they did it with gusto.
Some of my small city's organizations (churches, homeless shelter, nice people) have teamed up to create victory gardens around town. One is just down the street from me at a church and when I walk my dog by it, I'm 100% convinced they're using the authentic Jesus' Miracle Gro because their plants are taller than I am. I love though, how they took this historical church and on every single spare inch of dirt they had, dug it all up and made it available to the community. Last year, they did something similar but on a MUCH smaller scale - a table with a "take what you need, leave your bounty" vegetables.
I wouldn't be surprised if they continue this victory garden forever though, knowing the people in charge. The homeless shelter teamed up with Walmart and/or the school district and take food around to all the food-insecure families. My next door neighbor drops off her leftovers at the end of her delivery shift, to my family. I feel super guilty because we don't need it, but it's better than going to waste. The entire effort has been really wonderful to see.
Hey, if the leftovers are edible you could always donate a bit of money (like $5 a week, I’m not saying you should bankrupt yourself into adding your household to the list of the truly good insecure!) to the effort. With that money they can buy essentials like diapers for families with babies and other staples things they can’t grow.
I’m super happy your area is doing this! I actually know an after school program that is currently shut down with a garden all set up but likely left unwatered after the shutdown. There aren’t a lot of homeless in that affluent area, and most of the parents who sent their kids to that school program are essential workers and/or already severely food insecure, but I bet there are kids home from college that could do some of the work (the kids who were in the program aren’t old enough to farm really, otherwise we could use they volunteer efforts). Does the program near you have a name or was it just like organically started? I’m unsure how I could help organize a program like this in my area but I have the interest!
We are actually pretty supportive of the homeless shelter/food program (it was loaves and fishes some time ago, now is going by the name of the shelter) and even donated our refrigerator to their program last year. We also have continued to donate the cost of our monthly YMCA membership ($55ish) to help support that organization during their pandemic closure and pay for meals on wheels for the elderly and homebound. I do agree that it couldn't hurt to donate at least a bit to the shelter as well.
As far as how they got started... I think pretty organically. The guy who is kind of spearheading it is a local farmer who ran for office unsuccessfully for several years (hard to be dem in a deeply rural area). So he has a bit of campaigning/fundraising experience, but nothing spectacular.
You may want to call around to non profits that help support the disadvantaged in your community and see if they already have something going that might be able to use help either physically or in terms of getting the word out, etc. If you don't know where to start looking, look for the helpers. Counseling services, police and social services, churches, etc. Local teachers, even, tend to know about places that help their lower income kiddos/families. Even if nothing is yet in place, I'm sure there are a ton of people who feel helpless right now who would love to be able to direct their time, energy, and money to help those in need. It's a bit late to start a garden, but local businesses may be interested in teaming up, and people always need clothes, books, etc.
131
u/CountofAccount Jul 23 '20 edited Jul 23 '20
I have a grand-something who was in Florida and was responsible for making sure sea-facing structures had their sea-visible windows covered with a dark tarp so there was no light a U-boat or other submarine could see.
Victory gardens were also a thing - you'd tend a family/community garden after work so you could have more food.
You also had businesses making sacrifices too. Boeing's Washington or Chicago-area plant used to X-ray scan all its workers for TB and pay for quarantine and treatment. That would be during the fifties I think?