Brother, can you spare a dime?

These times of ours--- they are a-changin’ --- forThe Great Recession of 2009 is now upon on us all

and with it many of our kind are doing little more than“…counting crows on the telegraph line”

Our people are out of work--- and if they be forgotten, they then become as weathered as the landscape we find in the countryside of another era gone by.

And those that do find jobs…they find them wherever they can.

And for those who cannot find jobs--- they become as abandoned as the barns of an era gone by.

As early as March, 2009--- I saw tent cities forming in places like Sacramento, CA--- not unlike those of the 1930’s.

And these shelters of theirs--- become reminiscent of the homes of another era left neglected.

And even the necessities of life--- take on a new meaning all of their own.

And still there is this--- a sense of abandonment that permeates their all.

And what these new homeless are left with--- is their sense of a shared misery.

And their misery--- is their feeling of abandonment.

And their misery knows no boundaries--- for even their children become victims of this recession.

As they too come to know---what abandonment is.

And where one or two are gathered--- their mutual situation knows no limits.

For the engine that once could do the work of many--- seems to have left their mommies and their daddys behind.

And all that’s left--- is their despair...

And the hope--- that what’s down the road will lead to better times.

But for now--- there is nothing but the dismay and the despair in their eyes…

And their despair and their hopelessness abounds---for it is everywhere--- in their thoughts, in their lines, and in their ‘counting of crows on the telegraph line’…

This Great Recession of 2009 is not about us--- it’s about our own children and our own grandchildren, as they look ahead to their own times and to their own trials & tribulations that lie ahead.