While the leadership in this town pats itself on the back for “growth” and “tourism,” there is a shadow population growing in the early morning hours that is clearly being ignored. Go to the stores anytime and look closely. You’ll see the invisible homeless – people who don’t need carts or bags because they can only afford what they can carry in their hands.
This isn’t the America we were promised. We have built a system so hollowed out by car dependency and soaring costs that “getting by” has become a luxury. When a day’s labor can’t buy a week’s worth of dignity, the social contract isn’t just frayed – it’s incinerated.
When people are forced to dissociate just to survive the day, they stop caring about civic pride. They start looking for any way to survive – whether that’s petty crime or worse. This community is cannibalizing its own working class, and the silence of its leaders is a confession of incompetence.
Stop looking at spreadsheets and look at the faces of the people struggling to survive the walk from the parking lot. The invisible conflict is becoming very visible, and if the desperation continues to be ignored, don’t be surprised when the survival instincts of the many outweigh the comforts of the few.
Jeff Ross
Durango