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08/17/2004:

"Tulsa Killing Sparks Homeless Backlash"

Guardian UK
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Anger over a homeless man's fatal beating of a brass-knuckle-wielding bar owner is boiling over in Tulsa, where street people are facing a loosely organized campaign against their presence - and in some cases are being run out of the area.

T-shirts around town blast homeless people with a four-letter word, and some people are warning of vigilante justice. A liquor store put up a wanted poster with a picture of Terry Badgewell, the man who used a length of pipe to kill Deadtown Tavern owner Shawn Howard.

A prosecutor said the killing was self-defense and refused to file charges, but the victim's family is gathering thousands of signatures on a petition to force a grand jury investigation.

``We're very committed,'' said Howard's mother, Kay. ``Shawn deserves this.''

Meanwhile, Tulsa's homeless are feeling the heat. Michael Cypert, 31, who usually stays at a Salvation Army shelter near downtown, said patrons of the Deadtown Tavern chased him away from the area during a memorial for Howard a few days after his June 25 death.

Police have warned homeless people to stay away from the bar, and Cypert said has seen people downtown wearing ``F--- the homeless'' T-shirts handed out by bar owners. full article

What is becoming clearer by the day is the increasing mean-spiritedness of American people, and this especially manifests in hostility towards the poor. 'Sweeps' of the homeless in major cities, police violence, Bill Cosby's poor-bashing...The physical presence of poor people is insulting to those who cherish the image of America portrayed in all of the many Army-recruiting commercials, shining the light of freedom and prosperity on the rest of the world. This mean-spiritedness is being actively encouraged by the government, despite all the rhetoric about 'unity in diversity'. 'Diversity seems to mean that conversations about race and poverty are off-limits. The racial demographic of poverty is never discussed. It is not politically correct to have t-shirts that say f* blacks. People who talk about race, like Al Sharpton, are called divisive for pointing out the stark divisions which exist.

Gap Between Rich and Poor Widening in Troubled Economy commondreams.org
WASHINGTON — Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks, and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose paychecks buy less.

The growing disparity is even more pronounced in this recovering economy. Wages are stagnant, and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas and food have soared.

The wealthiest 20 percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to the Census Bureau. Their share jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while everyone else's fell. For the bottom fifth, the share dropped from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent. full article