America Is A Nation Of Haves And Have-Nots

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Lots of Americans are struggling to make ends meet—and not making it. The Covid pandemic affected businesses, and produced delayed effects in many cases. They are collapsing now; Americans are losing their jobs; and there is a ripple effect in our economy, as homelessness increases.[2]

For others, they have seen the prices of their homes soar to stratospheric levels, especially in the privileged enclaves of the rich and famous. For example, on the fabled Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, the road is clogged in early afternoons, as workers stream east from fancy homes in Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

This is true in Santa Barbara too, as workers travel south on Highway 101, having served their “masters” in Montecito, Hope Ranch and other neighborhoods. And in Silicon Valley and other wealthy areas, workers with even decent wages live in aging campers because they can’t afford the cost of housing.

Throw in the increase of crime and drug usage, and incendiary living conditions exist, certainly for young children.[3] And California is by no means unique or emblematic of this decline. Our cities have become crime- and drug-infested to such an extent that Americans are wise to avoid them like the plague.

This is especially true where officials are “soft on crime,” and demand that criminals be given a slap on their wrists at most. Repeat offenders are released routinely to commit crimes again and again; and the spiral of lawlessness continues unabated. It is not surprising that many Americans are fleeing to law-and-order states and areas of the country, to live and raise their kids.

For senior citizens in their twilight years, these issues are especially acute. Many cannot afford the necessities of life; and are considered burdens by their offspring, who would abandon them without a twinge of conscience or guilt, despite everything that such seniors did for them. Elder abuse is a fact of life in America today.[4]

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© 2024, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-13531969/american-homeware-brand-closing-south-carolina-factory-mexico-jobs.html (“Iconic American homeware brand Tupperware closing its last US factory after 76 years to move jobs to Mexico in huge blow to rural South Carolina town”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/homelessness-in-america/ (“Homelessness In America”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/homelessness-in-america/ (“Homelessness In America”)

[4]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/elder-abuse-is-alive-and-well-in-arizona/ (“Elder Abuse Is Alive And Well In Arizona”) 

Throw in divorces, and ravenous divorce lawyers who make things worse to earn their shekels, and there is the recipe for future estrangement and disasters.

See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/divorces/ (“Divorces”)

What’s It All About, Alfie?

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Dionne Warwick asked this in a song, as did Michael Caine in a film.[2] What’s Life really all about? We come into this world, and we die. None of us leave this world alive. The Pharoahs didn’t; billionaires don’t[3]; and we won’t—which is a sobering fact.

Because of Infanticide, some lives are cut short and aborted, who might have influenced the world in ways we can barely imagine—for good or evil. Suppose Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung had been aborted, or never born. And what about Jesus?

Many people globally have “experienced” God, including yours truly.[4] Does that provide guidance, and a sense of what to do in life? Perhaps so. Maybe the answer is to never stop believing; and that all we can do is our very best, and hope for the rest. And thank God for our loved ones.[5]

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© 2024, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_(Burt_Bacharach_song) (“Alfie (Burt Bacharach song)”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_(1966_film) (“Alfie (1966 film)”)

[3]  See, e.g., See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/jerry-perenchio-kind-and-caring/ (“Jerry Perenchio: Kind And Caring”)

[4]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/what-and-where-is-god/ (“What And Where Is God?”)

[5]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/legacy/ (“Legacy”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/the-wonder-dog-is-dead-and-part-of-me-died-with-her/ (“The Wonder Dog Is Dead, And Part of Me Died With Her”)

Legacy

By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Today is Mother’s Day, 2024. Several years ago, I wrote:

My parents were a ‘golden couple’ with everything going for them. My father was in real estate; and he bought part of the Al Jolson-Ruby Keeler estate in Encino, California, which he planned to subdivide – keeping one of the building sites for us. Plans were completed for a new, lovely home on it. Then, like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, my mother was determined to have the convergence of two rare skin diseases: Lichen Sclerosus et Atrophicus and scleroderma. They were diagnosed by doctors at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, and later treated by doctors who had been trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the state in which my parents were born and raised and where they met in grade school. These conditions occurred before the advent of health insurance, which would have helped our family financially. They affected only the right side of her body; and she came to my sixth grade graduation in a wheelchair. Such conditions ceased abruptly when she had her right leg amputated; and she learned to walk with an artificial leg.

Years later, during the Vietnam War, she organized volunteers at the Red Cross’ offices in Westwood, California, where we lived and where the UCLA campus is located. She was honored for the work that she had done by being named the local chapter’s ‘Woman of the Year,’ in helping U.S. military families and their service members in the war zone connect and cope with the stresses of family emergencies in the states, and emergencies that the service members encountered in Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere that the U.S. was engaged. My father worked seven days a week to pay the staggering medical and other bills; and my parents are my only heroes in life.

Thank you, God, for her and them—on this my mother’s day.

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© 2024, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf, p. 380, n.3.