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The Homeless are like Bears
And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.
-William Wordsworth, Guilt and Sorrow
Once again the homeless are in the news and, as always, the question is what to do with them. The solutions are not always obvious but the attempts can be described as nothing, if not creative and in many cases the National Park Service's treatment of bears offers guidance.
Those with long memories will recall the town in Florida that treated the homeless by following the example of Yellowstone National Park. Rangers in Yellowstone relocate unwanted bears far from where they are picked up hoping that once relocated they will not return to the places from which they have been taken. The Florida town picked up the homeless from tourist areas and moved them to outlying areas hoping that the relocated homeless would enjoy the fruits of their relocation even though none of the fruits included a home. I have been unable to determine how successful that program was. In all events, towns today continue to follow the example set by the rangers in Yellowstone.
According to Change.org, many communities have adopted rules that not only ban begging but ban furnishing food to the homeless, a practice followed in national parks with bears where feeding them is strictly forbidden. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, an ordinance was adopted that prohibits sharing food with the homeless in public parks. In Phoenix zoning laws were invoked to shut down a church that was serving breakfast to the homeless and others. Gainesville, Florida restricts the number of people soup kitchens can serve even though the number is less than the facility can comfortably accommodate.
Miami is considering an ordinance that would require people who distribute food to the homeless to go through formal training instructing them on how to ensure the food they are serving is safe and how to clean up the mess left behind. Those serving food would also have to provide a portable restroom and on-site sink. That will eliminate those serving food from the backs of vehicles and in parks. Although neither bears nor the homeless are going to cease being nuisances as a result of these compassionate and enlightened approaches to the problems they each pose, it is at least a way of addressing the issue that may encourage the homeless to go and find a home.
Enlightened though those approaches are, none can hold a candle to the approach favored by a town that has been described in this space and elsewhere as a perfect town. Its residents are educated and compassionate and live in beautiful houses, many of which replaced tiny houses that people lived in before they realized how much nicer it was to live in very big houses. That town is in Colorado and its name is Boulder.
Like other affluent communities, Boulder's pristine quality and virtually perfect ambience is slightly tarnished by the presence of the homeless. Its council, in its wisdom, has devised a way of dealing with them that is far more creative than the limits on their feeding imposed by other communities. It has banned camping, something bears are permitted to do, so long as they are not in the vicinity of humans and campgrounds.
Most people think of camping as a pleasant adventure that families do with children on summer vacation. The wise rulers in Boulder, however, have come up with a definition that redefines "camping." "Camping" in Boulder does not require pitching a tent or cooking "smores" over a campfire. All that is required is that the person lie down on city property "with shelter." "Shelter" includes "any cover or protection from the elements other than clothing." Thus, a homeless person who lies down and places a blanket over him or herself or climbs into a sleeping bag has taken "shelter" and violated the ordinance and the offender can be ticketed and fined or jailed.
Boulder, like many communities, lacks sufficient adequate housing for the homeless. From October 15 through December 31, 2009, 333 homeless people were turned away from the homeless shelter because of lack of space. One of those people was David Madison. The temperature, when he was denied shelter was 11 degrees. Mr. Madison took himself to a public place, lay down and crawled into a sleeping bag in order to keep from freezing. He was ticketed and convicted of violating the camping ban. He is not the first to be ticketed.
Since Boulder is such a perfect place its police have little to do. Accordingly, they have had the time to issue tickets to those who violate the no camping ban and since 2006 have issued 1,650 tickets to homeless people who violated the "no-camping" ordinance.
There is a bright side to being homeless in Boulder. It is OK for its residents to offer them food.
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46 Comments so far
Show AllProfessor Brauchli,if only the homeless were a little more like Bears.Homeless families could load up on food pantry carbs to add a quick 100 pounds of body fat and then dig a den and hibernate."Out of sight out of mind "then the D.E.P.would be in charge,not the.... police.
I think the states'D.E.P. budgets are stretched too thin to harass "Bears".What is next ? Can you imagine signs in state parks that read "Don't feed the homeless"?
God Goddess bless Amerika ,land of the free,home of the brave.
Did not one Politician suggest that feeding the homeless was akin to feeding stray cats? It just caused them to breed?
Where I grew up people that had pet dogs or cats they no longer wanted would take them out from town into the country and drop them off by a "Nice farmers gate" hoping the farmer would take them in. Maybe they are not driving the homeless far enough into the wilderness?
Maybe these poor suffering souls should just be "put down"? People driving to their cottages in Cape cod should not have to see these folk. It is distressing and ruins property values.
I met one of these nice farmers once. Strangers had dropped off 22 cats. She had a heart and couldn't let the cats starve, so she would just plunk a bag of catfood on the picnic table and the strays would open it by themselves. Meow!
Yeah it was the mayor of Ottawa Canada's capital. He said something like: giving spare change to the homeless that hang around his luxury condo which is stones throw from the Houser of Commons was similar to feeding cats it meant they never went away.
The U.S.A. recently 'solved' the problem of health insurance by mandating that people purchase health insurance. Problem solved! Why not solve the problem of homelessness by mandating that people provide themselves with a home? And while that is being done, why not mandate that people eat at least two balanced meals each day, get proper exercise, give up any bad habits like smoking...
the cruelty of the "mandate" is that you are FORCED to pay for health insurance (which doesn't necessarily mean coverage or affordable coverage at that) and I thought the problem with our current health care system was that it was unaffordable in the first place (and covered care AT WILL) so how is MANDATING coverage a solution to our problem??? IT ISN'T AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES OBAMA A FREAKING SCAM-ARTIST! IMPEACH HIM TOO!
Impeaching Obama wouldn't solve the problem.
It wasn't just the president alone who devised the health care reform legislation, he had help from all of those who had an interest in maintaining our current broken, yet highly profitable system. I'm not saying I am a huge fan of everything Obama has ever done but you can't lay all the blame for this on just him.
Those who stood up for single payer, like Dennis Kucinich, were shut down.
Its a massive scam, but there were more scam-artists than one.
Kucinich bowed to that scum Obama and the insurance industry...in the end Kucinich always does what is expedient over what is right. His record reflects this when it is a "down to the wire" vote....either way the congress supports the corporations and fucks us over....we cannot win with Obama or other Democrats in office....they always sell us out. Obama is the guy who will take Medicare and Social Security down...WATCH AND SEE....
We could also invest in bear-proof dumpsters to keep the homeless people away from our tossed-out bagels. The trouble is that unlike bears, homeless people are skilled with crowbars and with hacksaws if they can scrounge such things.
Finally, we could build up natural predators in the environment, say, other homeless people wielding knives and guns who want to rob them.
KASSANDRA: Thank you for the post. I agree that much in the way of so-called entertainment is designed to vanquish what's left of human empathy. Torture shows turn killing into entertainment, and how many movies do not include a theme of bombs going off, someone murdered, raped, or roughed up? Heck. All that has become THE fabric of American "culture." I call it Mars rules, and it's quite useful when what your country mostly exports is war and its lethal ancillary products.
Kassandra: The irony is that according to the Christian scripture you cite (Matthew 25) at the Last Judgment it is nonbelievers such as you who have compassion for the poor, who will be let into heaven, while those believers who lack compassion, will be shut out, despite all their beliefs, prayers, and church attendance.
Hey, Boulder: this sounds like a great opportunity for a mass "camp-in" at city hall.
And they can't even toss you into jail, because that in itself would violate the "no camping" ordinance.
I'm homeless, and have been since about 2 months after my first massive pulmonary embolism (I've had six so far.) Unable to work, I was unable to pay rent, and into the street I went.
My disability claim is a shoo-in, and I fully expect to collect $1,000 a month...in about 2 years. That's how long it takes to settle the average disability claim these days. In the meantime we're expected to live in the bushes.
My question is this: At what point does it become morally acceptable for me to start committing serious felonies to stay alive?
Lately I think a lot about violent revolution, and with death peeking around the corner every time I can't afford my Coumadin, or Verapramil SR, or Metoprolol, or Digoxin, etc... the consequences of violence seem less and less severe.
my family and friends think I'm odd because I sleep on the floor with just a mattress, no permanence. the silver spoon up their asses blinds them. when people are suffering I should give a shit about art on my walls. I'm grateful I have a roof over my head. I love you Brother, please don't cave
This is nothing new. Portland, OR has an "anti-camping" city ordinance (funny thing about theres is if you are on the west side of the Willamette River...where the money is....you get harassed, ticketed, beat-up, jailed and even killed as the case w/ one man this past winter...but if you are on the east side the cops will more or less leave you alone) and if they are not going after you at night time then they have a new unconstitutional law the business community (Chamber of Commerce backed AND shoved down the throats of the City Council members) have been using "SIT/LIE" ordinance. Again, on the west side of the city, you cannot sit or lie on a sidewalk or risk ticketing or jail. Even though two courts have ruled them unconstitutional and the city tried to drop it, the Chief of Police then threatened to cite people who are sitting or lying on the sidewalk w/ Disorderly Conduct. NICE!
No...what I love is how people have become homeless not of their own doing...but from a more incideous manner...corporate greed.
Just look at how the 90's were a decade of mergers and layoffs forcing millions of workers to seek temp jobs (result...losing benefits and stable work) and relying on credit which was issued like a crack dealer hands out crack to his first-time willing chumps...meanwhile the interest rates go up, you get more credit cards to pay the old credit card bills, and magically in the 2000's you can get amazingly great loans on houses you couldn't afford just 20 years ago without proof of full-time, steady employment, at least 10 percent of the purchase price due at closing, and a respectable credit rating and no WAY would a bank allow you to buy a 400,000.00 home on a McDonalds paycheck.
Now we approach the years ending the first decade of the 21st century and the banks with their preditory loans pulled the rug from underneath those folks, those temporary jobs have evaporated and taxpayers bailed out major banking/insurance industries and bad loans were not corrected and made affordable and adjusted to a REAL home value price, and now the streets are the affordable home-sites and food is a charity not a right. What the fuck do people expect?? You set people up to fall to preditors and greedy rich bastards and the whole society goes along with the City Councils, County Commissioners and we start debasing each other because they were unable to claw their way to the top. Where is our humanity???
What is happening in Boulder is happening in Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, Orlando, FL, Atlanta, GA and other places across this broken country. I think we need to look at ourselves and ask what kind of human being are we? We must go to Council and other official meetings and stand up for our friends/community members because we must realize that we too are only a scandal away from seeing life from their eyes. By that time it will be too late to stop something that is preventable. I spent 6 mo. last year in Portland trying to find a job and wound up living in a tiny trailer, living off food stamps....trust me....that was the scariest time of my whole life, but it was a wake-up call for me to get involved politically....and that I did and still do even though I am now housed and living in a new city.
This article and all the posted responses illustrate the dimensions of a problem I have lived with for the entire first decade of this century: what do we do with damaged people?
I recently retired from the Department of Public Health where, for the past 9 years, I worked as a receptionist in a clinic that serves mentally ill, often homeless, people.
My conclusion, after daily interaction with such folks, is that they are unbelievably impaired. Conservatives say if society stops providing services these malingerers will stop sniggering at us and will pull themselves up by their bootstraps and carry their own weight. Not true. The staff of social workers, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses I worked with are skilled at weeding out malingerers. Very few fit that category. Drop-ins must have a genuine mental illness to qualify for the very limited services that our clinic was able to provide -- if their problem is strictly drug abuse, they are referred to detox and twelve-step programs, although the movement within the mental health community is to combine mental health and substance abuse services under the rubric of "harm reduction."
Conservatives say, in effect, "screw 'em; don't do anything for them." Well, what happens then is they become ill on the streets and cost the city a fortune in emergency services, or they die on the street (this happens quite a bit) and their bodies have to be picked up and disposed of. Government can't just ignore them and let them die because, if any of them happens to have a relative who can secure the services of an attorney, not treating a sick and dying person will lead to lawsuits that will cost the government even more than providing the limited services clinics like ours are able to offer.
Still, it's a difficult population to generate any public sympathy for. When city officials say that the budget is tight and we cannot help both homeless mentally ill drug addicts and schoolchildren, the people who come into clinics like the one I worked at will be the easiest to jettison. People who have not gotten to know street people as individuals struggling to get by find it easy, when confronted with second hand accounts of their suffering, to say "who cares." Conservatives would like them out of sight but aren't willing to personally do the actual mass murdering (well, some of the gun freaks would probably take on the challenge).
I have no overall solution to these problems. As a person with left wing sympathies, I am proud to have spent my the final two decades of my work life spending taxpayer money to help society's least fortunate. But budget constraints made what help clinics like ours be minimal and far less than what circumstances called for.
I now hope that conservatives aren't going to be able to gain the reins of power, attack public pensions and "privatize" Social Security, giving the money to Wall Street who will lose it all on crooked derivative and credit default swap scams, rendering ME penniless and homeless.
I've seen what it takes to survive and I'd last less than a week. With the economy still sputtering through a weak and tentative recovery, the problem will only get worse.
Thanks for posting.
PARANOID: Your concluding paragraph is accurate and explains why certain places are already setting up pre-emptive ways to get rid of the homeless. There will be many more to add to their ranks. Given the high numbers of foreclosures, where are all these displaced persons & families expected to go? Those that are not mentally ill now, may find that the stress of trying to find ways to survive on the street leads them to that outcome.
Our society's elite remind me of the character of Ebineezer Scrooge. While members of their ranks devised false instruments through which to run numbers games (derivatives/swaps) that made a few people unbelievably wealthy (at taxpayer and homeowner expense), no measures were taken to rope in these practices. Perhaps leaders might have shown some imagination mixed with compassion by affixing a 2% homeless tax to the obscene profits made from well-heeled stock traders' portfolios. The money derived would help to buy back the now vacant structures, and use them to house the poor and mentally unstable.
The obscenities of modern American culture never seem to stop.
A friend of mine who's a psychologist/school counselor told me it all began (the homeless mess) when Ronald Reagan cut funding for mental illness. The "crazies" were let loose on the streets. Law & Order has done some shows using this factor as the basis for dramatic storylines. Often fiction will make the public aware of the issues it otherwise refuses to look at.
What is done to the least of these speaks for society as a whole. Punishing those who are already suffering is about as low on the spiritual totem pole as any society can go. Such callous disregard is the mark of the beast. And it's taken hold of the United States and its alleged systems of justice today.
Hi Justice, I thought the person who posts second owes the coke? I don't drink the stuff. I've had to spend too much on dental as it is. Someone told me that coke can actually disintegrate the paint job on a car... does similar to our tooth enamel.
I will check that reference out. You know it's my main issue... that, and how the emphasis on Mars and militarism has turned the US into Darth's Death Ship in naked pursuit of Empire... and as is the case when the great balance is off, all LIVING things are (as a consequence) at acute risk.
JUSTICE: You are so smart, technologically savvy, and cute... that I would be pleased to buy YOU a drink of any sort! I wish CD sponsored an event. Then I could make good on that offer. And I seem to remember extending it on at least two other occasions? I remember when some people in this forum were talking about being watched and landing in the new homeland security prisons... someone whose screen name I can't recall said he'd want the bed next to mine. I think that's a most adorable compliment! I asked if he could recite any poetry from memory...
Siouxrose:
I'm glad I posted this if only to finally receive a direct response from you to one of my posts. I have followed your posts for several years now with interest and appreciation.
Your friend who said that "it all began (the homeless mess) when Ronald Reagan cut funding for mental illness: the 'crazies' were let loose on the streets" would find most if not all clinicians who work with these folks in total agreement. I can still see and hear in my mind's DVR the smug sneering expression on Reagan's face when he said that "many of these people are, shall we say, homeless by choice." I've seen homelessness as a lifestyle and no one in their right mind (and there's the key phrase) would "choose" it.
One of the great frustrations in working with the homeless population is that some of them should not be out on the loose and should be housed in a caregiving facility, but there are few facilities they can be "committed" to, too few beds available. Hospitalize them for being "a danger to themselves and others" and their stay will be as short as the hospitals can manage -- clean them up, stabilize them with medications, and send them back out there to make room for the next one. It's heartening to me to have directly experienced the group of people who are out there trying to give what help they can despite the constant budget cuts. It undercut my cynicism and showed me that people can be and do good.
It helps me to bear in mind the words to that song that Joan Baez used to sing: "There but for fortune go you or I."
Yes.
Another legacy of the faux genial imbicile Ronald Reagan, and his puppet masters.
Good day, Paranoid: I see we also hold in common the art of self-publishing, and finding that our attempts at sharing insights goes largely ignored. Unless you're anointed by the celebrity-maker caste, you pretty much are left to piss in the wind! Or if you have deep pockets, you can pull a "Wayne Dyer" and purchase hundreds of copies of your own book to make it LOOK like you made it big! Then the media is willing to hand you a megaphone.
The same approach of cold (for profit) calculation that we see pushed upon the mentally ill is also underway when it comes to the nation's addicts. How many millions? I would not trust statistics as so much drug/alcohol abuse/behavior rests below "the radar." If one counted sugar as a drug (as many of us do), then the growing morbid obesity rates also speak of a different form of drug addiction. Most of these people struggle with their demons alone. Few facilities are available; and those that are, at great cost.
I've related the crux of Calvinism in this forum before. Its insights came to me at a little coffee shop in Cedar Key where I would sometimes talk with a highly educated former Jesuit Priest (turned oil exec!). I was lamenting the lack of compassion in the land for the many falling through the gaps... and why it was that this didn't seem a problem in the nation's countless churches.
Calvinism, he reminded me, had its roots in the founding of this nation; and it basically instructed its followers that to be successful, to show abundance, was the proof of God's blessing. In contrast, to NOT have these benefits implied a lack of blessing from God. This belief works so seamlessly with today's corporate capitalism without conscience because it blames the individual for his/her estate without bothering to look at the social & economic systems that conspire to establish that fate! Sure, a few always manage to fly over the cuckoo's nest, but at what price?
We've watched as certain token women and Blacks move up the ranks only to show fealty to those that invited them. They turn their backs on the types of policies that would tend to benefit other minorities. Condi shopped for shoes in NYC while her brethern fought off rising raw sewage in flooded Katrina-New Orleans.
I'll close with a sort of humorous take on what we've been sharing. My sister once sent me a birthday card that said:
"An expensive present or a greeting card..."
(turn the page to open the card, to see the words)
"I see you've CHOSEN the greeting card."
Doesn't that say much about the way freedom is defined in a nation that gives the wealthy a free pass while punishing workers, the indigent, the desperate, and the ill?
I'm glad we had a chance to connect. Write on!
Time was the mentally ill were kept in institutions for most of their lives. People thought this cruel and that they should be turned loose into society. I really do not know what the answer is for these unfortunate souls.
I think the best society can do for then is try and determine HOW they get into that state. Is it genetic? Is it societal? Is it enviromental? It is relatively "easy" to have sympathy for victims of Breast Cancer and other such diseases, but mental illness is a different matter entirely.
With all of the empty buisness buildings , and all of the closed down schools, it does seem that people should be able to find a place to feel safe and warm ( or cool ) depending on the weather.
"Give me your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free..." but not in my town, seems to be the response.
We become more and more like Haiti and Gaza every day. I don't have any answers, but this gets more and more depressing. What exactly are the benefits of being a citizen?
"Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
That's what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
And get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard"
- Lou Reed, Dirty Boulevard.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then, they came for the homeless...
San Francisco's Union Square always seemed to me to have a unique solution to the homeless problem. This was once a grassy park covered in trees and park benches that invited people to relax for awhile. Today, its a slate of concrete. It has few trees, few grassy areas of any size, and its park benches are cleverly designed to prevent someone from lying down. Watching a public performance there the other day, I was grateful to have found the only shade around: Dewey Monument, which still stands at the center of a now flat concrete slab, like a naked tree trunk in a clearcut.
"Use it; it is your square", said Mayor Willie Brown when the Park reopened in 2002. I would, Willie, if I were R2D2.
Anyway, homeless problem solved, they don't feel welcome there. Neither does anyone else.
I remember Union Square, it used to have a lot of drunken indians there. Now you don't see that anymore. The population of native americans in California is 1%.
The real riff raff of this country live in hamlets of exclusivity, plunder the nation of its resources, exploit the working people of this country, show up at star-studded benefits to help the poor, etc., making damned sure they never have to rub elbows with those they profess to care about.
Where, I ask you, is the so-called "American Dream?"
One can't help wishing the editors would change the name to "American Nightmares.org".
Science fiction stories I read decades ago, like the 50's and 60's, seemed to suggest to me that in the future, as robots took over more and more of the labor in this world, people would be working fewer and fewer hours until most of them would be freed to follow whatever hobbies they might have, while robots worked for them.
Of course, I thought, in the 20th century, hourly work expectations had gone down from 72 to 40 hour weeks for most people, and with that trend, someday, most of us would be down to just a very few hours, or none, and maybe just a few geniuses to maintain order over the thing. We'd have a utopia with lots of spare time to do whatever we wanted. Bucky Fuller even suggested there was enough wealth in this world, in terms of energy, for everyone to be a millionaire!
What a pipe dream! As it turned out, in reality, while we have lots more robotics now in factories and such, they don't seem to help out the people much, but rather the corporations just replace people with robotics, and put the people out to pasture, i.e., make them homeless. Of course, I also failed to consider corporations moving overseas where they could get cheap labor and avoid most of the cumbersome labor laws enacted by governments that might help the people. Such as GM, who I understand closed factories in the U.S. while opening factories overseas. Our tax money at work, eh?
That old story about the Luddites comes to mind. Maybe they were on the right track! The machines replaced the jobs, the people were put out on the street. The corporations are in this mad rat race to beat out all the other corporations, and the people are being trampled and put out to pasture.
I don't know what the next generation will bring, but I tend to think I'm glad I probably won't be here. Soylent Green, anyone?
The book you may be thinking of is God Bless You, Mr, Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. That book looks at helping people who have been rendered technologically useless and asked the question "What are people for?"
The Powers That Be think we all should be working ("they say sing while you slave but I just get bored"), and be happy for the chance to be slaves who have something to do even if paid a pittance, rather than being starving refugees. Look at that woman trying to scam her way into Harry Reid's Nevada senate seat who says people who "rely" on unemployment benefits are "spoiled" and should be willing to take any job at any rate of pay. They believe that with all their hearts. They think people complaining about being unemployed are not justified in their complaints, that they all could work if they wanted to.
I wrote and self-published a book half a decade ago that used black humor to demonstrate that workers are slaves and what the managers think of us. Nobody was interested. I thought the book no longer existed (I only have about six copies of the initial printing left), but to my amazement, it is still available through Amazon as a Kindle book.
I wouldn't recommend anybody reading it. My misbegotten attempt at humor (the book perports to be a terrorist manifesto written by someone about to release a homicidal computer virus, who explains why). I foolishly thought it would cause Homeland Security to put me on the no fly list, or something. But it was widely ignored.
But here's the link should anyone with a Kindle be crazy enough to look into it.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Net+Bomb&x=16&y=15&ih=15_4_1_1_1_0_0_0_0_1.3_274&fsc=-1
All these homeless people and families, and all these foreclosed homes sitting empty... Nah, too simplistic.
You are so naive: homes are not for people. They are for mortgages. And those mortgages are for repackaging into derivatives, leveraging at ratio's of 40 to 1, given a AAA rating by a wholely owned credit rating subsidiary, and using as investment capital all over the world. To sell those mortgages, the sheep have to be convinced that half-a-million dollars for an American shack is cheap, cuz it will only go up in value. Fortunately for the sheep, the wolves have low interest loans available, no money down, no references. Show up and prove you are breathing, and you're in! Your slice of the American Nightmare, er, Dream!
Homes haven't been for people in so very long. I'm looking forward to the day when WallStreet repackages the night sky. That will be a great day, er, night, indeed.
The measure of any society is how it treats it's most vulnerable members.
By that measure, the only one that matters, the US is nothing less than an abomination. It rewards the creation of poverty and then criminalizes the poverty it creates. It is a contradiction. It is a sin.
Bears are good medicine, if you see one then you should know you are in a spiritual place and honor it. You can learn much from a bear. Homeless people come in all shapes and they have one thing in common, they do not fit into this society in a conventional way. In a way that people understand. Most people would not know how to live without a house, stoplights, a grocery store, well you get the idea.
Very disturbing article.
Thank you Mr. Brauchli.
All of these empty homes that people spent their last dollar on while Wall Street, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and A myiad of financial institutions knowingly drew up terms that could not be met...Then, instead of rectifying the situation with some compassionate interest and sensible, workable payment terms, these moneys, which belonged to the people, were given to the "Too Big To Fail" Banksters.. And now we have an astronomical homeless and soon to be worse homeless situation, with winter fast approaching...What A shamelfull, inhumane, scandalously stinking sham...
I will feed, clothe and house any person I decide to and FUCK any law that says otherwise..If anyone approached me and told me I could not feed A hungry man, woman or child I would beat them within an inch of their life!!! I simply will not tolerate this kind of bullshit...
The super wealthy need to be taxed out of existence. They have systamatically and constructivly manipulated all of the wealth of this once great Nation from the working man through Government deregulationn which led to Banking and wall street scams on everything from food to housing. The starvation that resulted from the food market manipulations of 2008-2009 resulted in world wide starvation, just for the added wealth of the allready too wealthy...It should be A crime to be A Billionaire. Who has the right to own this much?
Why should some screw huckster robber Barron like Rockefeller come along in an opportune, once in A lifetime moment in history and through his slimy attorneys and henchman gain A monopoly over every aspect of our lives since time memorial. When that thieving coniving vulture died his empire should have been divested into the common pool to lift up humanity. His progeny could have kept 5% of the holdings.. And this should go for all of these Dynastys.
Why should our lives be totally manipulated and our earth plundered by all of the Rockefellers of the world. The true wealth of this Nation as far as Natural resources and means of production were mostly grabbed up in the first 150 years of the birth of this Nation. This wealth leads to control which is being refined into total control..
All I am saying is that each generation should get their fair share and an even break in life and not one person in this country needs the amounts of money
that deprive others of food, water, shelter, education and A fighting chance at the good life..
The rich are saying "let them eat cake" and we all know who last lost their head over that attitude...History repeats itself so all of you greedy, parasitic people who have sold out humanity, beware, the time is at hand...
And instead of just simply calling these people "the homeless" maybe A better term would be "The unwilling victims of Unbridled Capitalist Greed".. Would that not be A more appropriate term???
I have always felt this way...
Stuart R. Sneed
>>>>>"To sell those mortgages, the sheep have to be convinced that half-a-million dollars for an American shack is cheap"
If these morons' brains were half as big as their eyes we wouldn't be in this fix. Everyone outside of the "club" thinks that there is a fortune to be made on Wall Street. Those WS tycoons don't call them sheep for nothing---their sole purpose for existence is to be fleeced far as WS is concerned. And if these so-called "investors" who are on the outside looking in would just wise up for a moment and realize that WS is not Easy Street, they'd save themselves a boatload of money and a lot of grief.