We haven’t been asked to join the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its secretary Ben Carson, but we would welcome that opportunity.
Carson, like so many of Trump’s chumps, was placed at the helm of the agency to undermine it, to make sure that this vital piece of fair housing from the Obama administration requiring communities to oversee and address obstacles stifling racial integration be suspended.
That rule, stemming from the original act authored in 1968, according to advocates of fair housing, required more than a thousand communities receiving billions of federal housing funds to draft desegregation plans or risk losing the funds.
In January, Carson, no friend at all to desegregation, something he charged was akin to “failed socialist experiments,” suspended the rule, which permitted local and state governments to continue to receive HUD grants without complying with the Fair Housing Act.
According to a draft of the lawsuit, it is alleged that Carson did not provide any advanced public notice before moving to suspend the rule.
Even more egregious, Carson, agreeing completely with his boss, is ready to increase the rent on low-income families as well as requiring those receiving subsidies to work.
Although we are alarmed by these mean-spirited actions, we are not surprised. They are consistent with what we have come to expect from Trump’s cold-hearted, inhumane treatment of the nation’s citizens, particularly the dispossessed and those of color.
As for the outcome of the lawsuit and what can be done about rescinding the rent increases for the downtrodden, those issues remain beyond our control.
What is in our power, as ever, is to voice our disapproval, to let “agent orange” know we are not satisfied with his indifference, his lack of compassion for those in need.
And to expect just a wee bit of human decency from a man who once swore to uphold the Hippocratic Oath is clearly out of the question.
To Make America Great Again—Trump Must Go! And he can take Dr. Carson with him.