It is a shameful thing that it takes so long for the word to come out about the condition of our neighbors.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/09/03/chicago.fire.ap/index.html

The commissioner confirmed reports from neighbors that the family had been without electricity for at least a month and had been relying on candles for light.
...
The three-bedroom apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood had no smoke detectors, he said.

It is an absolute poverty that we allow things like this to happen. While some roll in wealth, others live in destitution. Lives separated and reduced to abstractions. We stop caring about people as soon as we can no longer see their humanity. And when we surround ourselves with people like ourselves we are insulated from the humanizing effects of community.

We are blind to people like this because of our life choices. We need to drop our barriers of comfort and reform into communities of old.