Breadlines

Hunger is a Feature of the Capitalist System. Not a Bug.

The following appears on my Channel Surfing newsletter at Substack.

1/ Breadlines: A scene outside a church on New Street. Cold morning. Bright sun. Before the doors open. Before COVID. Before the job purge that was still a few months in the future. // Men and women in heavy coats line up. Some stand, some sit in lawn chairs set up by pantry staff. The line snakes around the church’s education building. In view of the county college where I teach. Across from the family court. A block up from city hall. // Twice a week. Wednesday and Saturday. Part of their mission. Like so many pantries across the city. Across the region. About one in seven Americans experience “food insecurity” at some point in a year. This was before COVID. Before the pandemic shuttered so many jobs. // November 2019. The economy is buzzing says the papers. Says the president. But no one told the men and women here. Even in the best of times, the lines at these small pantries are long. //

2/ Breadlines: George Segal’s men wear fedoras and bedraggled trench coats. Protection against the metaphorical rain. Against a Depression that burned…