(Christie holds a sign at the end of the 30 mile journey, which is the Google campus. See more of Charisse Domingo’s photo essay of the march here.)
Andrew “Society” Bigelow • Silicon Valley De-Bug
Andrew “Society” Bigelow reflects on his experience walking on the 30 mile “March to Heal the Valley.” With the number of deaths rising due to the cold, communities ask one of the wealthiest regions in the world to confront its housing crisis and wealth inequality.
I live in the capital of capital; arguably the wealthiest place in the world. It is here, in Silicon Valley, that the wealth disparity that plagues this country is best represented. It is here, in Silicon Valley, that the wealthiest corporation in the world is about 12 miles from the largest homeless encampment in the country. It is here, in Silicon Valley, that some 17,000 people living in low-income housing had their rent doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. Everybody has their own way of reacting to the situation at hand—we decided to walk.
We called this walk the “March to Heal the Valley” with an understanding that the Silicon Valley is broken and people are hurting in desperate need. But instead of wanting to place blame, we decided we wanted to heal.
Starting from King and Story Road in East San Jose, not far from my house, I walked 30 miles across the valley with the houseless, disabled, disenfranchised and civil rights advocates to the headquarters of Apple Inc. and Google. Our journey was political, physical, spiritual and most importantly, human. It was the people I walked with that made this journey what it was. Here are some profiles of those who did the pilgrimage from East San Jose to the Cupertino and Mountain View campuses of the largest tech firms in the world.
Read more at Silicon Valley De-Bug
