Thursday, September 29, 2005
Funeral for Homeless Dumpster-Diver Killed By Garbage Truck
Just one of the many risks that many homeless must take to survive. Such deaths are common enough that "women in Black holds a vigil for every homeless person in King County who dies outdoors or by violence. Lark was the 37th person honored this year[in King County], and the number of homeless dying has gone up in recent years . . ." A lot more needs to be done than just holding funerals.
Living Tooth to Bottle
Dental care alone might help break the cycle of poverty for some people. How many poor people become alcoholics because they can't afford dental care? Link
Exploiting Katrina
I'm sure the bastards are gonna try to take the tax payers to the cleaners in every imaginable way. Here's one voice about the voucher slush fund, where Bush will shell out $7,500 dollars per child, without stipulations of federal or state oversight, without accountability for the quality of education provided. So, could scammers set up shop in a basement, herd-up about thirty students, then walk away with nearly a quarter million bucks, but leave the kids with a minimum wage babysitter for eight hours a day during which anything resembling "quality education" is completely absent? What's next? Child labor camps on U.S. soil?
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Homeless Man Slain in a Bed at Shelter
And people wonder why some homeless people would rather take their chances outdoors than risk being attacked or murdered in a shelter. People need housing, not cattle shelters which breed conflict, and certainly not incarceration.
Evacuees Go To Top Of The List… and Locals Get Dumped in LA
While others continue wait . . .
Here in Madison, WI (and probably nationwide), this same conflict is emerging between locals who've waited for assistance for years and the evacuees who are given homes, furniture, good jobs, and automobiles within days of the time crisis hit them. There needs to be more public outcry to eliminate poverty nationwide--NOW.
Much thanks to the homeless guy (in Nashville) who found this interesting website on homelessness in LA which has massive coverage about law enforcement officials picking up homeless people in the suburbs and dumping them on Skidrow in the center of Los Angelos.
Here in Madison, WI (and probably nationwide), this same conflict is emerging between locals who've waited for assistance for years and the evacuees who are given homes, furniture, good jobs, and automobiles within days of the time crisis hit them. There needs to be more public outcry to eliminate poverty nationwide--NOW.
Much thanks to the homeless guy (in Nashville) who found this interesting website on homelessness in LA which has massive coverage about law enforcement officials picking up homeless people in the suburbs and dumping them on Skidrow in the center of Los Angelos.
Is the Working Class Subdued by Having a Poverty Class?
Among the wave of discussion surrounding hurricane Katrina, Tom Teepen argues, in essence, that it's culturally imperative that the current wave of public attention to poverty die out:
Tepeen's point raises a lot of questions.
Accepting Teepen's proposition that the lower class gets self-esteem and status by having widespread poverty beneath them, what would it mean if that poverty were eliminated? Would the lower class no longer be pacified? With that presumed loss of status and esteem, would the lower class then start to awaken to the reality that they themselves are both the victims of and participants in a system that exploits and robs the majority for the benefit of a wealthy minority? Would that consciousness translate into resistance? That resistance into change?
There is a common contemporary debate over whether it's better to fund advocacy or programs. Is it better that the middle class and lower class pour their limited resources directly into charity programs that alleviate poverty for some, or better that they instead put their limited resources into the indirect political gamble of advocacy, such as lobbying and political campaigns for the creation of government programs which could eliminate poverty altogether?
Also, Teepen's point, whether he realizes it or not, challenges the typical (and most likely fallacious) view that more people will have to fall into poverty and suffer before broader resistance to the fascist system will emerge. Not only is this later view problematic if one accepts the proposition that the lower class derives status (and is pacified enough to give consent to the system) by having more people suffering beneath them, but the view that "more suffering means more resistance" is especially problematic when one considers that most who land in poverty are completely disempowered. Those surviving hand-to-mouth have no time and no resources to help bring about any change. Any additional burden is too great to risk.
Having slowly migrated down from middle class to dire poverty, what I do know is that the impoverished are far more aware of the consequences of our fascist system than the lower or middle classes. In fact, some of us experience dire poverty partly because of our principled refusal to help prop-up corporate fascism while there are no other appatent means to escape poverty. Some of the impoverished simply refuse to cave-in to the likes of Walmart. With some means, plenty could and would contribute toward positive change.
The fashionability of the poor will fade again soon enough because it has to. The rest of us need the poor in order to validate ourselves.
It is the American boast that this is the land of opportunity and anyone -- anyone -- can make it here if they just apply themselves. It follows then that the flops are never victims of system flaws and are always failures instead, and it follows, too, that you and I are doing well, or well enough or at least not as badly as those others, thanks only to our own grit and cleverness. The poor are a great reassurance to the rest of us.
Tepeen's point raises a lot of questions.
Accepting Teepen's proposition that the lower class gets self-esteem and status by having widespread poverty beneath them, what would it mean if that poverty were eliminated? Would the lower class no longer be pacified? With that presumed loss of status and esteem, would the lower class then start to awaken to the reality that they themselves are both the victims of and participants in a system that exploits and robs the majority for the benefit of a wealthy minority? Would that consciousness translate into resistance? That resistance into change?
There is a common contemporary debate over whether it's better to fund advocacy or programs. Is it better that the middle class and lower class pour their limited resources directly into charity programs that alleviate poverty for some, or better that they instead put their limited resources into the indirect political gamble of advocacy, such as lobbying and political campaigns for the creation of government programs which could eliminate poverty altogether?
Also, Teepen's point, whether he realizes it or not, challenges the typical (and most likely fallacious) view that more people will have to fall into poverty and suffer before broader resistance to the fascist system will emerge. Not only is this later view problematic if one accepts the proposition that the lower class derives status (and is pacified enough to give consent to the system) by having more people suffering beneath them, but the view that "more suffering means more resistance" is especially problematic when one considers that most who land in poverty are completely disempowered. Those surviving hand-to-mouth have no time and no resources to help bring about any change. Any additional burden is too great to risk.
Having slowly migrated down from middle class to dire poverty, what I do know is that the impoverished are far more aware of the consequences of our fascist system than the lower or middle classes. In fact, some of us experience dire poverty partly because of our principled refusal to help prop-up corporate fascism while there are no other appatent means to escape poverty. Some of the impoverished simply refuse to cave-in to the likes of Walmart. With some means, plenty could and would contribute toward positive change.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Another Republican Denies Homeless Vote
Add this to the list of reasons for a constitutional amendment ensuring every citizen the unconditional right to vote.
As with many states, to have the right to vote requires not just an address but that the address be one's primary residence as well. Because this is fundamentally impossible for the homeless, the homeless are easily denied the right to vote. So, it is not true when James says "the homeless are allowed to vote. I have no quarrel with that. But they have to follow the law," by which he means that they have to have a residence. This is to say that the homeless can vote as long as they aren't homeless. I imagine that makes perfect sense to most republicans who really wouldn't want a million or two homeless people to be granted the legal right to vote. So much for all that hot air about spreading freedom and democracy!
With the prospects of a federal law requiring an identificationon card to be eligible to vote, this problem will likely get worse since an address is normally required to get an I.D.
As with many states, to have the right to vote requires not just an address but that the address be one's primary residence as well. Because this is fundamentally impossible for the homeless, the homeless are easily denied the right to vote. So, it is not true when James says "the homeless are allowed to vote. I have no quarrel with that. But they have to follow the law," by which he means that they have to have a residence. This is to say that the homeless can vote as long as they aren't homeless. I imagine that makes perfect sense to most republicans who really wouldn't want a million or two homeless people to be granted the legal right to vote. So much for all that hot air about spreading freedom and democracy!
With the prospects of a federal law requiring an identificationon card to be eligible to vote, this problem will likely get worse since an address is normally required to get an I.D.
Monday, September 26, 2005
For Katrina Victims: Homelessness Illegality By Cities Nationwide
For those who slip between the cracks of America's response to the tens of thousands left homeless after Katrina and the other 2005 hurricanes, here is a breakdown of the different ordinances and laws that different cities around the country use to persecute the homeless (this was last updated in 2004, and with the national trend to crack down on homeless people, laws in somce places may be even harsher. Homeless people with a choice of cities may wish to choose a city wisely.
A quick look at the list of top twenty cities that are meanest towards homeless people will reveal that many of the cities regarded as "safe havens" for homeless people have in recent years become the most hostile of all. Of course, any homeless person here in Madison, WI will tell you that this narrative glosses over many horrifying realities, like the hell of being shut outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures in the winter, since Madison's shelters have a ninety day limit which many homeless people use-up by the end of February, periodically leaving people to die in the cold.
Of course, nationwide hostility toward the homeless has been growing for over a decade, so this is at least one thing that can't be blamed just on the Bush administration.
Note to Katrina Victims: Please help shatter the myth that homelessness is largely caused by drug use or mental illness. While I would argue that the main cause of homeless is the inequity and unfair distribution of society's wealth, a homeless guy in Nashville reveals "that the reason why the overwhelming majority of people become chronically homeless is due to painful negative social events, of which becoming homeless is the only way the person can escape them."
Although the outpour of compassion, mutual aid, and private charity may be well and good in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, it is but a temporary patch and isn't sustainable under present conditions. To the extent that most of this private charity will burden the middle and lower classes, the unfair distribution of society's wealth will be worsened. This is why the problem must be confronted by taxation of the ultra-wealthy billionaires who not only can easily afford it but who can't possibly even feel the loss. That wealth, exacted from the exploitation of millions of poor and middle class workers, should be redirected to the deserving, if not in salaries and wages, then in the form direct subsistence, health care, education and training, as well federal jobs programs. In time, this need will grow increasingly self-evident and imperative as tens of thousand more homeless people are instantly scattered around the country, as millions more continue to fall into poverty, as the middle and poor classes become so strained that their ability to offer charity will fall dramatically shorter and shorter, as homelessness and poverty explodes to the point that it becomes a unbearable expense in terms of public health and incarceration, and as global warming and more intense hurricanes cause such castastrophic mass dislocations to continue for decades to come. The time for change is now, before it's too late.
A quick look at the list of top twenty cities that are meanest towards homeless people will reveal that many of the cities regarded as "safe havens" for homeless people have in recent years become the most hostile of all. Of course, any homeless person here in Madison, WI will tell you that this narrative glosses over many horrifying realities, like the hell of being shut outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures in the winter, since Madison's shelters have a ninety day limit which many homeless people use-up by the end of February, periodically leaving people to die in the cold.
Of course, nationwide hostility toward the homeless has been growing for over a decade, so this is at least one thing that can't be blamed just on the Bush administration.
Note to Katrina Victims: Please help shatter the myth that homelessness is largely caused by drug use or mental illness. While I would argue that the main cause of homeless is the inequity and unfair distribution of society's wealth, a homeless guy in Nashville reveals "that the reason why the overwhelming majority of people become chronically homeless is due to painful negative social events, of which becoming homeless is the only way the person can escape them."
Although the outpour of compassion, mutual aid, and private charity may be well and good in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, it is but a temporary patch and isn't sustainable under present conditions. To the extent that most of this private charity will burden the middle and lower classes, the unfair distribution of society's wealth will be worsened. This is why the problem must be confronted by taxation of the ultra-wealthy billionaires who not only can easily afford it but who can't possibly even feel the loss. That wealth, exacted from the exploitation of millions of poor and middle class workers, should be redirected to the deserving, if not in salaries and wages, then in the form direct subsistence, health care, education and training, as well federal jobs programs. In time, this need will grow increasingly self-evident and imperative as tens of thousand more homeless people are instantly scattered around the country, as millions more continue to fall into poverty, as the middle and poor classes become so strained that their ability to offer charity will fall dramatically shorter and shorter, as homelessness and poverty explodes to the point that it becomes a unbearable expense in terms of public health and incarceration, and as global warming and more intense hurricanes cause such castastrophic mass dislocations to continue for decades to come. The time for change is now, before it's too late.
Hurricane Katrina as Excuse to End Posse Comitatus
William M. Arkin:
Nothing in law prevents the President from employing the military in a Katrina-like emergency if state and local government really breaks down. In fact, the 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act more symbolizes the military's subordination to civil authority than it actually restricts what the
military can do. More . . .
Bush, speaking on the aftermath of Katrina:
It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces . . . --G.W. Bush, New Orleans, 9/15/05, full transcript here.
Yet, Bush already had (not just) all the federal authority he needed, but a responsibility that he and DHS Secretary Chertoff neglected, under the national response plan. Perhaps Tommy Franks may have known more than he told when he suggested Bush might suspend the U.S. constitution.
Maybe Bush wasn't joking:
If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier...just as long as I'm the dictator..."--G.W. Bush, Washington, DC, Dec 18, 2000, during his first trip to Washington as President-Elect
Missing: 517 Prisoners Left to Drown in New Orleans Jail
Jails may house people incarcerated for minor citations like outstanding traffic tickets, and may also house innocent people who haven't even been indicted or arraigned, let alone tried and convicted, innocent people whose release may simply be pending bail or acquittal. Many innocent people may have been trapped in a death cell against their will, left to die. This, of course, doesn't suggest people deemed guilty are any more deserving of a death sentence. Were 517 inmates disappeard? Is this more American genocide?
From Common Dreams News Center:
From Common Dreams News Center:
Human Rights Watch compared an official list of all inmates held at Orleans Parish prison immediately prior to the hurricane with the most recent list of the evacuated inmates compiled by the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety (which was entitled, “All Offenders Evacuated”). However, the list did not include 517 inmates from the jail . . .
Friday, September 23, 2005
Right To Return
The Black Commentator 's Glen Ford:
"The people of New Orleans have the right to be made whole, again. They are citizens, wounded by their own government. The rights of citizens cannot be privatized, or churched-out, or Salvation-Armyed out. All help is appreciated, but we must also focus on rights – the right to not be permanently displaced by depraved government policies or the corporate greed that will certainly try to swallow New Orleans whole – just as whole as did the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. . . . Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people’s culture, by official action or depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law. "
"The people of New Orleans have the right to be made whole, again. They are citizens, wounded by their own government. The rights of citizens cannot be privatized, or churched-out, or Salvation-Armyed out. All help is appreciated, but we must also focus on rights – the right to not be permanently displaced by depraved government policies or the corporate greed that will certainly try to swallow New Orleans whole – just as whole as did the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. . . . Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people’s culture, by official action or depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law. "
Support Katrina Victims Responsibly
The impetus that got me to set up this blog:
With all concerned eyes diverted to the war, will the material conditions of the poor improve as a result of the public discussion spurred by these hurricanes? When the fundraisers and relief efforts are done, will there be more homeless people or fewer? More malnutrition or less? I think it depends, in part, on how much noise and trouble we (poor people) make!
--muse
List of Grassroots Action-Oriented Efforts to Help Katrina Victims Responsibly
Family Farm Defenders
People's Hurricane Relief Fund: DONATE by mail
Background and Project Contacts: People's Hurricane Relief Fund/Community Labor United
Federation for Southern Cooperatives
Rebuild New Orleans Green
Southern Empowerment Project
Southern Mutual Help Association
Grassroots/Low-income/People of Color-led Hurricane Katrina Relief
With all concerned eyes diverted to the war, will the material conditions of the poor improve as a result of the public discussion spurred by these hurricanes? When the fundraisers and relief efforts are done, will there be more homeless people or fewer? More malnutrition or less? I think it depends, in part, on how much noise and trouble we (poor people) make!
--muse
List of Grassroots Action-Oriented Efforts to Help Katrina Victims Responsibly
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