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Show gSBWMBPl Jackson Community School Is DIFFERENT these Their faces are Everyone knows the lines to the script. Now only action can be a each one of us can give and do individually. Let us all take some old, tired and apathetic. eality. The poverty of the world is without remedy except what responsibility, and not say, "It's not my fault. I'm just the And people live apartments. Tenement Houses Dark and Dreary by Barbara Smith It's hardly news to those who are in need of an apartment that there lies a long, tedeous, and tortuous road ahead that often leads to a dead end. greets the apartment seekers. Some rooms have probably never known sunlight, and perhaps most have never known happiness. The smell of urine and garbage hangs heavy. Midnight trails of In general, large tenement houses look fairly habitable and cockroaches and bugs can be traced along dusty, dirty floors, kept on the exterior, but walls and ceilings. Staircases are ready to cave in. Sometimes windows are stuck, not allowing well these appearances are deceiving after being shown the interior. Inside there are long and winding hallways that are dark and dreary. Walls are like spider webs, geometrically cracked, broken. Plaster sprinkles on shredded carpets if doors are slammed too roughly. Sinks are crippled, ready to collapse if too much weight is put on them. Gloom lurks in corners, and desolation proper ventilation. Other times they are broken, allowing the cold night air into the poorly heated rooms. Water stains from busted pipes or leaky roofs blotch ceilings. When furnished, stoves and refrigerators work only occassionally, and even then very poorly. -- in lax. And why not? It seems no amount of scrubbing and polishing can brighten up a grubby, rundown apartment. "What do you expect for $85.00? is a typical, tired and cynical response after one comments on the condition of the apartment. Then a quick, Housekeeping is defensive, "It's not my fault. I'm just the caretaker." Where does the fault lie? Is the landlord callous to the conditions of the apartments? Is he just concerned about receiving rent payments on time? Or is the tenant lazy and uncaring about his home? Is he unnecessarily unclean and careless? Can the blame be pinpointed? It caretaker." CHAT AM N UAL MEETING Wed. Oct. 18, 1972 7:30-9:0- 0 p.m. Horace Mann Jr. High School 233 W. 1st North General business and elections. is a vicious unending cycle powered by passing the buck, excuses, useless apologies and expl anations that rationalizations and are memorized and deeply rooted. The time to talk is over. (Capitol Hill Neighborhood Council) |