Friday, April 26, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

The Semi-Official Paper of the Left Wing of the Democratic Party

APRIL 1, 2009 --

The New York Times front page, March 26, carried a color photo with a report that could have been called, “As Tale of Tent Cities.”

The headline for the article, instead, was:
“Tent Cities Arise and Spread in Recession’s Grip.”

The report, by Jesse McKinley indicated that people, recently had been forced by economic factors to live in encampments for the homeless, encampments that were appearing in the west (Olympia, Washington), in the center (Nashville, Tennessee), in the south (St. Petersburg, Florida.)

The article began with the observation of the manager of a Fresno, California outreach program for the homes that he first noticed homeless encampments a year and a half ago. (July, 2007, LPR noticed a homeless encampment near Cleveland’s Jacobs Field, and posted an image of the site, which used cardboard, not tents for shelter.)

 The sub-head to the Times story announced: “Hoovervilles of ’09 Emerge in Fresno and Elsewhere.” Reporter McKinley put the term in his story, also reporting that in Seattle, a homeless encampment is called “Nickelsville, an unflattering reference to the mayor, Greg Nickels.” And “Hooverville” is merely descriptive?

But there The New York Times goes again, dredging up the invidious “Hooverville” label
to apply to the current and “smaller scale” versions “of Depression-era shantytowns."

The greatest irony in using the term is that Herbert Hoover gained fame, after World War I, for his humanitarian work, organizing relief efforts for Europe, including the people of Germany suffering starvation as a result of the British blockade.

The term “Hooverville” reflected, as LPR sees it, a demagogic smear of a president by his political adversaries.

And now, apparently, it has been taken off the shelf of to tar (once again) Republicans.