It is a cold and very windy November 11 in the Sonoran Desert. In an area near the Colorado River and not far from Mexico is a wind blown group of older RVs, campers, cars and tents flapping in the strong desert wind. This is an area once frequented by substantial numbers of winter visitors from northern climates commonly known as “snowbirds”. After COVID, these retired, mostly elderly people stopped coming here. Canadians were regular visitors here, now you won’t see a single Canadian license plate. They are afraid of having health issues and being entrapped in the American insurance/medical system or being involved in a police gun battle. The Bureau of Land Management, a federal government agency charged with managing open spaces in the American west, have allowed the recreational areas to fall into disrepair and with no rules or regulations, can be a dangerous place. The people here are here because they have nowhere else to go.
Most of the people camping here are elderly. It’s pretty rare to see anyone under fifty years old, but there are more and more children and teens as mostly young families who have had a financial setback are forced into homelessness. Most of the people here could be considered homeless because Social Security and retirement savings couldn’t keep up with the exploding cost of living in the United States. They have enough money to survive, but not to live. Like the saying goes; “You can live in your car but you can’t drive your house”. Many of them are here because of a family medical emergency that insurance would not cover, they lost everything, and now they live here, at least temporarily. Medical expenses are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States and no doubt a major cause of homelessness in this country. You won’t hear that from the politicians or on the news because the insurance industry owns both of them. This is a homeless camp, an American refugee camp. Nobody is on drugs here, these are law abiding citizens. There are no criminals, just fathers and grandfathers who obeyed the laws, got up and went to work every day to support their families. Many of them served their country, pledging to sacrifice their lives for the same country who, as old men, put them on the streets to save money. You won’t see this homeless camp on TV because it does not portray a dirty encampment full of dirty ex convicts shooting up drugs. These are people that America has fucked over for money, people who believed in America and were betrayed.
Nobody know more about betrayal than American veterans, especially homeless veterans who got the dirtiest end of the dirtiest stick. This morning, Veterans Day, these vets were standing around in the cold desert wind in small groups of two or three talking with each other. No parade, no holiday, just the shared experience of betrayal and loss. There are so many homeless veterans here, a local church group has a service and meal just for veterans. Not many veterans go. The effort is appreciated, I’m sure, but the trust in “veterans groups who help veterans” is low. Today, the conversations are especially grim due to the divisive political situation and the reality of the fact that America may not survive as a nation. All the lives lost in America’s numerous and unending wars will have been lost for no reason.
So yeah, Veterans Day.