ENG 102 Response 3

ENG 102

Response 3

“Someplace Like America”

In the book entitled “Someplace Like America,” by Dale Maharidge, with a foreword by Bruce Springsteen, both writers talk about their experience traveling through America, and experiences living among “REAL” Americans. They talk about living among, the homeless, the unemployed, the wealthy citizens, whom fall from grace due to the economic downturn, to all walks of life. The journey of this book begins in Santa Barbara, California 1984. It begins with the murder of a homeless man by the name of Kenneth Burr. His friends think that he was murdered by the people of the small town, because they didn’t want the homeless people around. The homeless, where treated with disrespect, like second class citizens, by the locals and the police. A man murdered, goes uninvestigated, with no one being held accountable for the murder.  The Arthur of this book couldn’t believe that this was happening in America!  America was supposed to be the land of freedom, where everyone was supposed to be equal, but the readers of this book, would soon come to find out that it wasn’t true. The way you are treated in America is based on class, race, religion, and career.

                Many Americans tend to think that because you’re a homeless person like Kenneth Burr that you don’t deserve respect and those they can run over you, and treat you any kind of way. The incident that happened in Santa Barbara was very unfortunate and most people, as a matter of fact, many people could careless, except for people that actually treat others with decency no matter what their situation is. Many people are homeless today, because of the economy problems that we are having at the moment.  In today’s society the people on Wall Street that cause the economic problems are still living well, while ordinary people are suffering.

               

                The purpose of this forward from this book, was to give your insight about events leading up to peoples situations, and the financial crisis that is going on now in America. It also is informing us about how was as Americans treat others that are down on their luck, how we try to hide the situation rather than fix the situation. Americans always talk about every is equal, and deserves fair treatment, but where was this compassion when it came to Kenneth Burr? Why was he treated without care simply because he was homeless? America talks a big talk, but in reality if anyone just took a look about our morals, how would they really judge is?

Resources: "Someplace Like America" by Dale Maharidge