Author Archives: Jessica

What happened to the American Dream of a college education and home ownership?

– Anonymous Iguana Reader

Dear Reader,

Another great question from one of our readers. There is no one reason why the American Dream of a college education or home ownership is beyond the grasp of middle class U.S. citizens. Instead, a number of factors combined to push most Americans out of the marketplace for these two elements of the ideal middle class life style. In general these factors are the drastic decrease of primary sector jobs that were filled by the middle class, new jobs that not only require major pay cuts, but benefit cuts as well, wage erosion due to prices rising faster than wages, and discrimination in wages.

However, each issue has its own unique and specific additional factors.

Since the 1970s, the amount of income earned by a middle class family, and what that income can purchase has decreased like no other time in U.S. history with the exception of the Great Depression. From 1970 to 2010, the median household income in the U.S. went from about $43,800 to $49,500 in constant dollars, an increase of just over 13 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

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Photo by Mary Bahr, 2011.

“6,402 Americans dead in Iraq and Afghanistan,” reads a headline. But few of us reading the news have any concept of what that number actually means. It is an arbitrary figure that is supposed to inform us but really jut misleads us.

6,402 seems pretty low compared to the number of American deaths in past wars like Vietnam, Korea and World War II. It’d be easy to discount those deaths if your understanding never went beyond the facts and figures.

This is why Gainesville Veterans for Peace will be displaying more than 6,400 tombstones from dawn on May 26 through dusk on Memorial Day to remember those who have died in the wars in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003.

Memorial Mile will line the street along Eighth Avenue just east of 34th Street, where the Solar System Walk is located. This is the sixth year VFP has set up the display, and it is the fourth time that the tombstones will have to line both the north and south sides of Eighth Avenue due to the increased number of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The visual impact of the tombstones conveys the reality of these numbers.
Last year Memorial Mile was made up of more than 6,000 tombstones.  This year more than 400 will be added, each one representing an American service member whose life was lost.

Each tombstone will include the soldier’s name, date of death, age, branch of service, rank and hometown.  They will be arranged by date of death.
Soldiers with local ties will have American flags placed on their tombstones so that they may be located more easily.  Veterans for Peace will have a list available on site at an information table to direct the public to specific tombstones.  Last year, people came to the Memorial Mile to place flowers and other expressions of love at the tombstones.

Parking will be available at nearby West Side Park.

Want to know what’s going on in Gainesville this month? Check out the Iguana’s May/June 2012 Calendar. Print it out and put it in your wallet, on your refrigerator, or pass it on to a friend.

Have an event you’d like to see on the Iguana Community Calendar? Email it to us at gainesvilleiguana@cox.net.