Diary of a Mad Editor

I was looking for more information on a story I’d read earlier about certain families who still live in FEMA trailers four years and counting after Katrina. One of the links that popped-up in the search results didn’t, as it turned out, have anything directly to do with the story, but I was astounded and deeply offended by it: It’s a discussion forum for trailer park owners and managers. In this one topic discussion, a bunch of these degenerate assholes were talking about how they deal with "deadbeats."

I have to confess that I lived in a mobile home for the first eight and a half years of my life and, seeing as how my family were screwed over by an unscrupulous landlord and forced to sell-out and find new digs elsewhere, I have a certain amount of sympathy for people who are forced to live in mobile homes. That there are nearly 20 million people in the U.S. currently living in trailers — that nearly the entire market for the mobile home industry is the working poor and that there are people like these fucks on that forum who make their living taking advantage of these people, really irks me.

Anyway here is some of what these jerks had to say:

"An early park owner told me this story. Before you file eviction on a tenant, you need to walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do file the eviction, you’re a mile away from them and have their shoes." — Frank

"Our residents are not dogs but I’m learning the hard way that many of them must be trained as if they were." — Rolf

"This is a business. You can’t go to the grocery store and say I am a little short this week, and still buy that delicious steak. They will tell you to buy hamburger instead or eat beans." — Robert

Lots of talk about "priorities" on here. Bill collectors and those like them  don’t really care why you can’t pay them their money. It doesn’t matter to them if you’re out of work or deathly ill and have medical bills you can’t pay. It doesn’t matter that you need your car to go to work or that you need to eat and have clothes to wear. Or, if you have kids, that they need to eat and have clothes to wear. Someone who owns a chain of trailer parks probably can’t understand what it’s like to wonder where your next payday is coming from or having to choose between paying a utility bill, rent or feeding your family. These pricks pay their own mortgages by exploiting the misfortune of the less fortunate. I figure, when you provide a service to a class of people who you know going in don’t have a lot of financial resources, you know damn well, they may, from time to time, be unable to pay you on time, so suck it. And, BTW, since when is "pizza" a luxury? Or eating at a diner. Try buying the ingredients at a supermarket these days to cook meals for a whole week as cheaply as you can eat at most diners. Of course, a poor family can always eat beans, right? And day old bread is a good deal too if you don’t mind eating something with the consistency of a brick.  And why not forget about buying milk or orange juice and just stick to tap water. It’s all good as long as the landlord gets his money on time. In any event, I certainly wouldn’t brag about throwing people out on the street like it’s a sport.

Not the usual topic for this blog. Just something that pissed me off this morning, I thought I’d share.