Common Dreams -- US in Denial as Poverty Rises

Next door to Yale, the bastion of privilege that turns out the land's leaders, lies a tent city of America's poor, huddled masses

New Haven's tent city was established after the authorities closed down a homeless overflow shelter a few weeks ago.

New Haven is a metaphor for the America which on Tuesday elects its Senate and House of Representatives. It is the country's fourth poorest city, where the ghetto laps at the walls of a university worth $11 billion (£7bn) in tax-exempt endowments, educating America's next generation of rulers. A sign at the freeway turn-off advertises New Haven as the birthplace of President George Bush.

It is a city with the same infant mortality rate as Malaysia and a terrifying rate of deaths from AIDS - one day care center alone commemorated the loss of 600 clients at a memorial service on Wednesday. But it is located in America' richest state, Connecticut, which has, proportionally, more millionaires than any other.

I had been reading about Yale, the strange elitism, the rich who go there and the secret societies.