Bottoms' Up

The mainstream news media reported this week that 18 homeless people, most with alcohol in their systems, died in Phoenix, Arizona from the extreme heat. What wasn't reported was that there shouldn't be 18 homeless people in the entire United States.
TV commercials, news stories and other depictions paint a prosperity picture just short of heaven on earth. You would think the U.S. has no economic faults and anybody not secure in the society has only himself to blame. Thousands attend ball games, concerts, political rallies and festivals. Particularly disturbing is the constant reporting by politicians that more Americans own their own homes than at any time in history. Sure they do, if you discount 30 year payments and credit card prosperity.
In my travels I see small towns everywhere with all the buildings vacant, standing like ghosts with nothing to do. In the cities I see both over and under development with homeless people holding signs and growing pocket ghettos that blind the dazzle of modern architecture.
I won't drink to any of it but it's bottoms' up when the bottom falls out. Sam Nettles