‘Separate But Equal’

Editor:

In asking how 300 people could be wrong in their support of another elite retirement community in McKinleyville, I’m reminded of the 77 million that just voted to put billionaires in charge of national policy (the advertisement for Life Plan Humboldt, Feb. 13).

Any institution, small business or “nonprofit” accessing public resources and subsidies used to advantage privileged individuals merits public outrage. The cruel fallacy of “separate but equal” has expanded with bipartisan support.

Life Plan Humboldt founders could have avoided costly visits to similar Life Care Communities by visiting their websites where all-white boards of directors and residents reflect an expected outcome from $650,000 entry fees, thousands more in monthly charges to stay and additional user-fees for services … mirroring billionaire’s priorities for the nation.

“We’re living in one of the most segregated versions of American society that has ever existed where democratic leadership fails to counterpunch against oligarchs, at a minimum, by publicly articulating universal programs helping working class families,” U.C. Irvine professor Catherine Liu said commenting on her book: Virtue Hoarders, The Case Against The Professional Managerial Class.

Instead, the nation’s retiring professional managerial class is utilizing institutional knowledge and political influence to access billions in public resources and subsidies for their own excusive, tax-deductible retirement communities, (including the lion’s share of $165 billion in “private financing” secured by HUD, nearly $8 billion in California alone).

Billionaire’s utilization of institutional knowledge and political influence currently seizing public resources and policies for personal gain merely continues 45 years of bipartisan deregulation, divestment and privatization of the public commons culminating in today’s unprecedented multi-trillion dollar personal debt crisis due to family illnesses, housing, “public” utilities, “public” university tuition, transportation and maintaining a loved-one’s services in a private senior community.

History’s painful lessons in “separate but equal” are not yet learned.

George Clark, Eureka

This article appears in 2025 NCJ Pet Photo Contest Winners.