William C. Antalics

304-06 E. 8^th Street, apt. 4

New York, NY 10009

212-260-0636

For nearly 25 years I’ve lived and worked in the lower east side of Manhattan in a variety of situations and positions. I came to the city in November 1982 to live and work in community at the Catholic Worker with homeless people until June 1991. I involved myself in a lower east side homesteading program which was successful and completed in may 1992. I currently live in this building. I now work as a tenant organizer and building manager. I have done extensive volunteer work in a nearby soup kitchen 1983-1985, and more work in the same kitchen from May 2003 to the present day. I’ve also done volunteer work for the Coalition For The Homeless 1983-1985 as a shelter monitor, and I am currently involved with 2 organizations that deal with the abuse of authority by the police.

The main reason I wrote this essay has to do with hostility I’ve been experiencing traveling to and from the lower east side to see friends and relatives in middle class situations over the past 10-12 years. My experience in these travels was at first a quiet, nervous acceptance of this interloper from the inner city but this uneasiness has radically changed to overt remarks and sometimes anger. Also, I offered this paper which severely criticizes middle class Americans to a group of editors at the Catholic Worker newspaper a few years ago and it was quickly rejected as if any hard examination of the American family was taboo ground. Because of these circumstances I found it necessary to look at the quote from D.H. Lawrence and to ask difficult questions about the moral character of American middle class people.

Jamaica, Queens, New York 11439