[Peace-discuss] Michigan City, IN

[David Green]

Small Town Values
Posted By Vincent Emanuele On September 20, 2019

Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probably die in a small town
Oh, those small communities’

– John Mellencamp

A few weeks ago, another young man was shot to death in Michigan City,
Indiana. He was the fourth or fifth in the past several months (no on
really keeps count, especially when the victim is black). Here, in the
shadow of the nation’s third-largest city, poor and working class people
slave away at low-paying service sector jobs that provide no benefits,
seasonal wages (at best), and no future. The ghosts of Neoliberalism and
Deindustrialization continue to haunt our small town.

Those pesky shootings, however, haven’t deterred the tourists, or our
glorious mayor. Oh no. They love the ‘low-cost of living,’ minimal taxes,
and scant regulation the state of Indiana and the Michigan City municipal
government provides. The mayor openly talks about gentrifying the city on
the front pages of the local newspaper (who’s more than happy to showcase
his classist vision), and gloats about the corporate subsidies and tax
abatements the city dolls out to multinational corporations who provide $10
an hour-non-unionized jobs, mostly to non-Michigan City residents.

Some of the better paying jobs can be found at the Blue Chip Casino, a
landmark to the hypocrisy, corruption, and horrors of Neoliberalism.
Forty-plus years of tax cuts for the rich and corporations have put states
like Indiana in an impossible situation. State law prohibits localities
from raising the minimum wage above the federal average. Municipalities are
also prohibited from raising income taxes or corporate taxes. Hence, cities
like Michigan City are held hostage by decades of Reaganism and Trickle
Down economic ideology and practice. In order to raise funds for even the
most basic city functions, Michigan City has sold its soul to Boyd Gaming,
a legal loan shark.

As Chris Hedges writes:

Americans in 2013 lost $119 billion gambling, with an additional $70
billion—or $300 for every adult in the country—spent on lottery tickets.
Federal and state governments, reliant on tax revenues from legal gambling
and on lottery ticket sales, will do nothing to halt the expansion of the
industry or the economic and psychological toll it exacts on those in
financial distress. State-run lottery games had sales of $73.9 billion in
2015, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial
Lotteries. This revenue is vital to budgets beset by declining incomes,
deindustrialization and austerity. ‘State lotteries provided more revenue
than state corporate-income taxes in 11 of the 43 states where they were
legal, including Delaware, Rhode Island, and South Dakota,’ Derek
Thompson wrote in The Atlantic. ‘The poorest third of households buy half
of all lotto tickets,’ he noted. Gambling is a stealth tax on poor people
hoping to beat the nearly impossible odds. Governmental income from
gambling is an effort to make up for the taxes the rich and corporations no
longer pay.

Our local politicians, either too dumb to realize the error of their ways
or too connected to want to know, speak only in glowing terms about Blue
Chip. Anyone who brings up the ills of gambling culture is called a
‘naysayer’ or ‘cynic.’ Meanwhile, the casino workers, at least some of
them, are fighting back. While portions of the casino are unionized, others
are not. Workers have no control over their scheduling, hours, or work
conditions. If they speak-up, they risk being fired. In Michigan City,
where service sector jobs are as abundant as the local heroin supply,
working at the casino is a step-up from the ‘Mom & Pop’ restaurant gigs,
where sleazy business owners get away with illegal labor practices and
sexual harassment, and routinely take advantage of illegal immigrants and
migrant workers.

***

Last year, a local bar owner was arrested for assault after he called a
young woman a ‘nigger’ before hurling a beer bottle and splitting open her
lip. Those in power go out of their way not to talk about race relations in
the city. Dealing with the issue of systemic racism, if it’s even
understood by those in power, is totally out of the question. In a city
that has experienced multiple race riots since the 1980s, it’s clear that
the social and economic ingredients for another violent uprising remain
potent. The question isn’t ‘if,’ but ‘when?’

According to a study by the United Way (none of the regional universities
or local governments fund studies of the sort in our town), 53% of Michigan
City residents can’t make ends meet. That means people can’t afford the
basics: rent, car note, phone bill, medical expenses, etc. NPR reports that
less than 25% of Americans have $500 in their savings account to deal with
an emergency. In Michigan City, that number is probably around 10%.

In yesterday’s paper, the mayor and the city received a glowing report
($13.6 million in revenue for the county) about the ‘Grand Prix Boat Races’
that took place in August on the shores of Lake Michigan, where
ArcelorMittal (a Luxembourg-based steel company) was recently busted
dumping over 175 lbs of cyanide into the Little Calumet River, which
streams into Lake Michigan, killing over 3,000 fish and shutting down
portions of the beach. Local officials, IDEM, the DNR, and EPA talked about
how this recent ‘incident’ would hurt the local tourist industry and the
newly designated ‘Dunes National Park.’ They ranted and raved about the
tens of thousands of tourist dollars lost. Of course, no one mentioned the
fish.

Several local officials virtue-signaled in the local press, but no one
takes them seriously. In the end, they can’t do anything anyway. They’re
peons on the ladder of power in the state of Indiana. The Republicans
downstate will never allow the legislature to kneecap industry, and the
Democrats who dominate politics in Northwest Indiana, the most
industrialized portion of the state, would never push the issue for fear
that the local unions would stop supporting them. And of course the local
unions won’t do much because their leadership is in bed with industry and
the local politicians who facilitate whatever industry wants.

The steel mills, oil refineries (BP operates the largest tar sands refinery
in the Western Hemisphere about 40 miles down the road in East Chicago),
and casinos devote hundreds of thousands of dollars to corporate
philanthropy. Their pittance is enough to buy off environmental
organizations, local unions, state politicians, and regional art institutes
and artists whose foundation dollars come from the very entities that have
destroyed the natural environment and entire communities. Turns out, absent
actual communities, it’s tough to build an ‘art scene.’

The regulatory agencies are almost as bad as the corporations they’re
supposed to police. In Northwest Indiana, IDEM and the EPA are virtually
useless. ArcelorMittal, whose annual revenue in the year 2018 was $96
billion, will pay a minuscule fine (maybe $10,000). This latest ecological
disaster is a case study in why no one in The Region trusts corporations or
the government that’s supposed to regulate them. Again, why would they?

***

Back to those shootings. Our mayor, city council, and local police chief
say that no one should be worried. The crime statistics are going down,
they say. Our city is primed for ‘development.’ Local government has
created a ‘friendly business climate.’ That pesky ‘Big Government’ is
finally neutered. One of our city council members, a Democrat and
middle-aged black professional who thinks very highly of himself, once told
me at a community BBQ that “black people in our city are poor because they
buy Air Jordans and Cadillacs.” Try talking to the white politicians.

The local churches and NGOs are equally reactionary and impotent. The local
chapter of the NAACP regularly holds ‘financial literacy’ courses for
low-income communities, hoping to teach those irresponsible poor folk to
better spend their monthly $900 social security check. Even worse, the
NAACP supported a Republican in the last state-wide elections. You know,
the party dedicated to making life a living hell for anyone who’s not a
white male making over $250,000 a year (if you think the national GOP is
nuts, you should meet some of the Republicans in downstate Indiana).

The local black churches, for the most part, preach the prosperity gospel.
They tell their overwhelmingly poor congregations that if they just work
hard, get right with God, and invest their money properly, they too will
eventually drive a BMW and wear shiny suits. Justice of any sort —
environmental, social, economic, or otherwise, is never mentioned. The Cult
of Entrepreneurship abound.

***

Ah yes, a local mayoral election is coming up, but no one really cares. For
those in power, the key is to keep voter turnout as low as possible. That
means we’re lucky to get 20% of the city to vote in municipal elections.
And why should they? After all, none of the people running for local office
express any willingness to deal with the decades-long injustices that have
plagued Michigan City. For them, running for office is akin to a high
school popularity contest. The lack of substance, superficial pageantry,
and hollow gossip that dominates our presidential elections has seeped into
local politics. Perhaps it’s always been this way. Who knows.

What we do know is that the planet and our lives are being destroyed and no
one in our local or state government has any clue what to do (not that we
expect them to). In fact, quite the opposite: they actively support
policies that will further catapult the planet into ecological despair. The
topic of climate change isn’t even discussed. Instead, local environmental
NGOs hold workshops on gardening techniques and native species while the
planet is murdered by the fossil fuel industry.  Other than a few dedicated
groups of community organizers and activists (none of whom are paid),
virtually no one is fighting back.

Opioid addiction and alcoholism is rampant. The horrors of addiction are
compounded by systemic poverty, an increasingly militarized police
department, social alienation, an eroded welfare state, and political
nihilism. Everyone knows that things are completely fucked (that’s why
they’re drunk and high), but people remain unconvinced that fighting back
will do much. Sometimes, I don’t blame them. Other times, I get angry, or
sad, or both. Persuading people that they have a voice and power (if they
collectively organize), is a monumental task.

***

Earlier today, I went to the gas station and a young gentleman who couldn’t
stop scratching the oozing scabs on his weathered face (Meth or Crack) was
telling the cashier that she’s gotta watch out for the ‘niggers’ because
‘they’re’ starting to ‘take over Midtown.’ She nodded her head, and smiled.
On my way home, I ran into my buddy Mike, an older black guy from down the
street, who, after telling me about a local stabbing, was happy to inform
me that his nephew is being transferred to Indiana State Prison, which is
located in, you guessed it, Michigan City.

Outside my window, there’s a cascade of sirens pouring down Franklin
St. While NIPSCO spews pollution from its coal fired plant (located on the
shores of Lake Michigan), there’s a homeless man walking down the street.
He’s looking through trash cans and between cracks on the sidewalk for
half-smoked cigarettes. Just beyond him, there’s a couple screaming at each
other in the Walgreens parking lot. They must be in their early 20s. My
neighbor, Rick, is sitting in his car on the side of the road, drinking a
beer. His wife kicked him out of the house because he ‘pissed off that fat
bitch’ (she’s 8 months pregnant with their third child).

You know, those Small Town Values.

Article printed from CounterPunch.org: *https://www.counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org>*

URL to article: *https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/20/small-town-values/
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/20/small-town-values/>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20190922/72219f3e/attachment-0001.htm>