13 December 1885

[Daily Prophet]

DECEMBER 13TH 1885

SAFE LIVING STANDARDS FOR THE SLUMS LETTER TO THE EDITOR

In response to the Proud Wellingtonshire Citizen of December 5th, You are wrong.  The slums are our problem—society’s problem, as a whole—just as they are our fault. We must have a conscience. Inequalities are ever-increasing, and the poor have always been the first to pay. Washing one’s hands of the slums solves nothing; it merely abandons those who have no feasible alternatives to the disorder and desolation of their surroundings. To consider the citizens of the slums ‘unruly’ and ‘irredeemable’ is to erase countless scores of honest, working people—and families; parents and children—who are suffering under the neglect of their government and their society. Surely the working class people who are honoured as recipients of your charity, your scholarships and your funding and your compassion, the very people who also inhabit these same slums, equally deserve that basic right to live in safety?   _____________________________________________________________

In regard to the apparent waste of time and resources it would be, I ask what then is the job of law enforcement, if not to enforce laws, and to protect citizens, any as such that should require it? The Wizengamot would be right to involve itself. And whilst law enforcement is a start, there must be—as previously addressed by others—much more effort put into prevention. Practically, many houses are not only uncomfortable, but unsafe, unlivable, and not all wages offer people the possibility of a Wellingtonshire residence’s security. (And, in any case, crime of this serious nature can sprout from any soil, and affects us all; a murderer may hail from anywhere in Hogsmeade, whether or not select areas are simply better equipped to shelter their residents from peril.) The root of much other crime that particularly plagues the slums is such of desperation, a desperation which is well explained by the conditions endured by many there. Thus, we must take note of such conditions, and change them.  Steps must be taken to provide reasonable standards of living for all. AUTHOR: JUDE WRIGHT

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