| Writing about buying a home – so close to the trashing of our house – remains difficult. It seems trivial. Yet, I was uplifted by a meeting 3 days after the event, when I spoke to someone who wanted to buy a home – about how to buy a home. Let’s call her Peg.
Peg is in her early forties and cleans homes for a living. Her husband is a line cook, each working long hours. Their son attends university studying for an accounting degree. A registered freshman, he has sophomore standing because of high school A.P. classes he’s taken.
Early on Peg lived in a 3-room, one bedroom home without running water and livestock in the yard. She now rents a 2 bedroom unit with running water and wants to own a home. Peg had been told renting was like throwing money away.
As we spoke I thought about the trashed house and Jackson Browne:
 “What I believe in my soul ain’t what I see with my eyes and we can’t turn our backs this time.”
Words did not come easy to Peg, yet she was able to express where she had come from and where she wanted to go, her dream.
“This house is ours” was a refrain shouted over and over as the occupants, the rioters trashed the house. Who trashes their own home?
I tire of noise and flag waivers who think that volume and a symbol makes this country – their country – more than my country. I don’t yell and the only flag I own is the flag given my father, a man who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, on the day he was buried.
“I am a patriot. And I love my country. Because my country is all I know.” – Jackson Browne
 Peg loves this country. It was obvious in how she spoke about her work and her son and opportunities provided. Peg has a college degree…and cleans homes. Her degree is not recognized.
I explained to Peg the goal of home ownership is a good one but there is nothing wrong with renting. Frankly, “throwing money away” can occur if you buy the wrong house or pay too much for a home. Given Peg’s circumstances, time was on her side.
Trashing our House made me sad. Interesting that a woman much younger than me, from a place I had to find on a map, with a college degree, who cleans homes…gave me hope for the future.
 Oh, and that place on the map I had to look up? Peg grew up in Uzbekistan. She became an American citizen in October and voted for the first time in November. Welcome home Peg.
If you’d like to discuss home ownership, how best to buy or the chess game of selling and buying, contact/text Seamus (414-243-1744), Mike (414-364-4903) or me (414-254-4129) and we’ll be glad to talk to you in a civil, transparent and honest manner.
Thanks for reading,
Michael D. Holloway
This email was sent to [email address suppressed].
You may instantly unsubscribe , or forward this e-note to a friend.
|
