If you want to know whats wrong with America today, read the book Tightrope: Americans Reaching For Hope, which also ran as an abbreviated New York Times opinion piece called, Who Killed the Knapp Family by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl DeWunn. It tells the story of a school bus Nicholas rode in a rural Oregon town in the 1970s, not much different from Humboldt. 25% of the children on that No. 6 school bus are now dead in their 50s or younger, mostly from alcohol, drugs, suicide and/or reckless accidents. Of the five Knapp family kids who had once been so cheery, four have died. Farlan died of liver failure from drinking and drugs, Zealan burned to death in a house fire while passed out drunk, Rogena died from hepatitis linked to drug use and Nathan blew himself up cooking meth. The only surviving child, Keylan, spent 13 years in a state penitentiary. The Knapp family went from a typical middle-class American family to being decimated in a generation.

Among the other local kids on that bus, Mike died from suicide, Steve from a motorcycle accident, Cindy from depression and a heart attack, Jeff from a daredevil car crash, Billy from diabetes in prison, Kevin from obesity-related ailments, Tim from a construction accident, Sue from undetermined causes. And then theres Chris, who is presumed dead after years of alcoholism and homelessness. At least one more is in prison, and another is homeless.

We live in two Americas today. One America lives in the major urban cities (think professional sports franchise cities) and the other in the vast rural areas. Look no further than the 2016 election map. One has careers, not jobs. One has equity and assets, not debts. One has income streams, salaries and bonuses (along with insanely high housing prices and atrocious traffic), not minimum wage. One has employee benefits, not public assistance.

I recently had lunch with a good friend of mine who spent most of his adult life working various union jobs on the Samoa Peninsula. He talked about during the 1960s, 70s and even the 80s the Samoa Peninsula had over 1,200 people working union jobs with living wages, benefits and a defined benefits (monthly check) retirement plan. One by one, the saw mills and then the pulp mills went out of business until Evergreen Pulp Mill finally shut down in 2008. The same decline happened with our local timber and fishing industries.Like many other parts of rural America, first the good-paying jobs disappeared, partly because of technology, robotics and globalization, but also because of political and corporate pressures on unions. Then Congress changed the tax code for a distribution of power and wealth toward corporations and billionaires. Second, there was an explosion of drugs heroin, crack cocaine, meth, oxy and now fentanyl. This was augmented by the aggressive opioid marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies. Third, the war on drugs sent many mothers and fathers to jail, imploding families and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Working-class towns across America disintegrated because of lost jobs, broken families and depression, magnified by alcohol and drugs. The suffering was invisible to those at the top, but the results were brutally evident for all to see. Open your eyes next time youre driving around Old Town, Downtown or on Broadway. Since 1988, American schools have become increasingly segregated by race and wealth. Children in lower income school districts perform on average four grade levels behind those in wealthy districts. One in seven children dont graduate from high school and one in seven children lives with a parent suffering from substance abuse. Suicides are at their highest rate since World War II. More than 7 million Americans have suspended drivers licenses for failure to pay child support or court-related debt, meaning they may not reliably show up for work.

The sad thing is those at the lower income strata who voted for Trump, hoping he would rescue them. However the number of children without health insurance has increased by more than 400,000 under the Trump Administration. If you havent figured out yet, Trump is not the answer. He couldnt give a rats ass about those 20% of Americans at the bottom of society. Say what you want about President Trump, however he understands one simple fact: A sociopath beats a socialist every day of the week and twice on Sundays. My biggest fear this November.

Matthew Owen resides in Eureka, and believes the First Amendment allows for free speech, even when married to a Humboldt County supervisor.

Originally posted here:

Matthew in the Middle: Whats wrong with America today? - Eureka Times-Standard