Best of my inbox

Back from vacation, seems like all I've been doing is reading emails and washing clothes. Above is from Cute Overload.

STUDY OF THE WEEK: FOOD GIANTS BRAINWASHING KIDS A new study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine indicates that the annual $10 billion the food and beverage industry is spending on advertising foods to kids is working alarmingly well. The study found that four out of five kids preferred the flavor of foods served in McDonalds packaging as compared to the exact same foods served in packaging without the McDonalds brand. By the time they are two years old, children may already have beliefs about certain brands, and by the age of six they can recognize brands and specific brand products. Not surprisingly, the study found that kids with more televisions in the home had stronger preferences for brands. The authors suggested this study strengthened the justification for tighter regulation or banning of advertising and marketing of high calorie, low nutrient food and drink, and perhaps a ban on all marketing that is aimed at young children. Learn more and take action in OCA's "Appetite for a Change" campaign: http://www.organicconsumers.org/afc.cfm

Cooling Tower Collapse Raises Concerns about a New License for the Aging Vermont Yankee Reactor*

After key components of a Vermont Yankee cooling tower fell to the ground Tuesday, members of Safe Power Vermont are saying "no" to renewing Entergy's license to operate for another 20 years.

Safe Power Vermont - a coalition of experienced citizen, environmental, legal, and anti-nuclear organizations committed to closing the nuclear power plant - said that while alarming, the collapse of the cooling tower is not surprising.

"Vermont Yankee is running at 120% of its designed capacity. This surge in power combined with its already ailing infrastructure leaves Vermont Yankee incredibly vulnerable to dangerous accidents just like this one," said Deb Katz, Executive Director of Citizens Awareness Network.

Advocates questioned the clean bill of health that the cooling tower recently received from Entergy's experts. They called into question Vermont Yankee's claims that the 35 five year old reactor is not experiencing serious aging strain that jeopardizes the plant's future. "Vermont Yankee telling us that the plant is running like new is like a hair dresser telling you that you look twenty years younger, its nice to hear but far from the truth," said James Moore, Clean Energy Advocate for VPIRG.

The plant's history of defects and accidents is not insignificant. Just in the past decade, Vermont Yankee has documented 76 cracks in its steam dryer, three fires in its transformer station, a dangerously overcrowded spent fuel pool for radioactive waste and now a cooling tower collapse. Despite this, Entergy is aggressively looking to extend the plant's license to operate for an additional 20 years.

Advocates also noted that Vermont Yankee benefited from the recent expiration of a rate payer protection plan. This fact will leave Green Mountain Power, Central Vermont Public Service, and Vermont rate payers with higher bills in the future.
"Any further reliance on Vermont Yankee will pass on to future generations both financial as well as safety risks. Vermont Yankee was built to run 40 years and at 35 it is already testing "father time", the plant must close in 2012," said Ed Anthes of Nuclear Free Vermont.

In accordance with Act 160, the Vermont legislature has the power to prevent Vermont Yankee from running past its 2012 lifespan. Safe Power Vermont says the coalition will continue to work for the facility's closure to prevent a seemingly inevitable accident of catastrophic proportions.

*For More Information: * James Moore, VPIRG, 802-223-5221
Chris Williams, VT CAN, 802-767-4276
Deb Katz, MA CAN 413- 339- 5781

Two years after Katrina, the Gulf Coast is still recovering, and thousands of personal stories remain unheard. Experience them here. Tell us yours. VOICES FROM THE GULF.

Pioneer Valley

Latin Jazz Festival

Saturday, September 1^st, 2007

La Finca,
24 Jones Ferry Road , Holyoke 01040,
l ocated alongside the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts

12:00 to 7:00

Featuring:
Curtis Brothers' Insight
Victor "Papo" Sterling's Sabor a Timba
Art (Jayko) Clinton's KomboJaZZ
Angels Rodriguez' "Mundo Nuevo Latin Jazz Ensemble"
Faith Conant's "Mi la Woe" (We will do it!)

$10 adults, $5 for College students/seniors, Children free

The donations will provide funding to support other cultural activities at El Mercado including poetry readings, art shows by local artists. For further information call 413-687-0399 or cena.elmercado@gmail.com

CENA Centro de Artes

@ El Mercado, 413 Main Street, Holyoke 01040 * cena.elmercado@gmail.com * 413-335-6224

CENA is where the community can create, see, support, and learn about different artistic disciplines and promises to enhance the South Holyoke neighborhood, assist in the revitalization of Main Street Holyoke, and bring resources to the area. This space serves as an anchor to a network of programming and educational opportunities related to cooperative economic development in conjunction with other community institutions, programs and institutions of higher learning.

Sponsors: Centro de Artes @ El Mercado, Nuestras Raíces, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Mass Latino Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Fair Housing Center (MFHC), Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA), NetValley Networks, COOP Power, New England Cooperative Fund…

ONE MORE TIME! READY TO GO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. AND SAY NO MORE WAR?
*September 29: March Against the War at Home & Abroad

FOR INFORMATION on BUS TRANSPORTATION FROM WESTERN MASS. for the Sept. 29 "Healthcare Not Warfare DC Mobilization," phone us at 413-896-5219 (Springfield) or 413-587-0059 (Northampton), or email wmassiac@hotmail.com please type "S29 DC BUS" in your email's subject line.Troops Out Now.

Walking the same beach over many years

I'm glad for all the stone
that I was strong enough to carry home.

I'm stronger now, and haul
shell of scallop, bone of gull.

Some summer I will know
such strength, I will return alone.

Waves

I think that he has counted every wave
he's seen today that broke on shore

as he jumps up and down, shouting
"Two thousand fifty-three! Two thousand fifty-four!"

From vacation

The perfect first victim
in this mystery novel:
the cat he never wanted
but grew to love

Other victims/killers:
his partner
the woman he loves
the one he never trusted
the one he always trusted
the least suspected.
One will take a bullet for him
one will try to kill him
one will break his heart
one will redeem him.

What kind of energy solutions do we want?

The Ecologist

Bats in the house

I have just combed the Internet looking for pictures of cute bats and let me tell you, they're not easy to find. I recognize that an unpleasant childhood experience and too many Dracula movies have shaped my perception. Surely baby bats are cute to their mothers?

I've had a bat in my apartment every night for a week-- a different bat each night, I think: one was VERY BIG and flew high; one was smaller and flew in the middle range, then another big one, then another small one, et cetera et cetera.

The first night I laughed at myself as I crawled on my hands and knees from the living room to the kitchen to open the porch screen door so the bat could get out, which eventually it did.

The second night I slunk along the walls to repeat the process.

By tonight, I'm, like, Gosh, it's hard to relax with a bat in the house. I actually walked to the porch door to open it.

My cats have been unsurprisingly useless, in fact only mildly interested in the whole bat affair.

I know bats are good for the environment-- they eat tons of bugs-- and they're mammals, they nurse their babies, they're not aggressive and some species are endangered.

Still, I'd rather not have them in the house, but from what I've researched, it's pointless to try to find where they are nesting in the house and seal them in because they have babies and they would die inside the walls and not smell very good. It has to be done between November 15 and March 15. I will try to do it before the holidays. I don't expect my growing (and possibly temporary) sang-froid will extend to my company.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two hours later: I'm talking to my friend and fellow Sagittarian Holly on the phone.
"By the way, do you know anything about bats?" I said.
"Bats! I had a frigging bat in my house for three days," she said. "I was starting to think I'd just have to outlive it."

Racism comes full circle in Springfield,MA

Poor Mayor Ryan.

I doubt he had any idea that today, when he announced the city was ready to begin diversity training of its employees, that eight of those employees would be announcing a racial discrimination lawsuit at nearly the same time!

Irony of ironies, the fellow he announced would be doing the training, Tom Belton, was one of the eight (plus attorney Devin Moriarty) standing on the steps of City Hall as they talked about decades of being passed over for promotions, not receiving raises, and being subjected to insensitive remarks by white co-workers.

Mayor Ryan is still trying to handle the fallout from the February resignation of his Chief of Staff Michelle Webber. Webber resigned after Rep. Cheryl Rivera went public with accusations of racism against Webber, accusations that Webber denied at the same time she apologized to anyone she might have offended.

Of course discrimination at City Hall didn't start with Mayor Ryan, and it looks like it won't end with him, either.

I remember a former city councilor of color telling me I just had no idea what it was really like for people of color during the Albano administration, and why that councilor was choosing to support former state representative Paul Caron for mayor instead.

And lest we forget, this is Ryan's second go-around as mayor of Springfield. In his first term, Ryan called in the National Guard to make mass arrests at a peaceful demonstration of African-Americans at Court Square. They were there to protest the arrests of African-Americans who had been clubbing at the Octagon Lounge. One of those arrested is our current State Rep Ben Swan.

Ryan also ushered in the "Strong Mayor, All At-Large City Council and School Committee" election system which has resulted in only six people of color being elected to city council in forty-five years.

In another irony, Rep. Rivera's accusations against Michelle Webber in Ryan's second time in office were part of the trial affidavits we submitted in our federal lawsuit against the City of Springfield to challenge Springfield's all at-large voting system-- Arise for Social Justice, Oiste, the NE Chapter of the NAACP and a number of individual plaintiffs.

A binding question to change to an "8 ward,5 at-large" system will finally be on the ballot this November.

Thus we come almost full circle.

I know that as a group, we white people don't understand how much our well-being is bound to the well-being of people of color. Social injustice skews our reality like a funhouse mirror. But we can change. I see it all the time.

Right now we need to support the eight courageous people who today said: Enough is enough.

The State of Tent Cities in August

NEW ORLEANS: Homeless people and advocates have been camped out in a pavilion across from City Hall since July 4th to protest the lack of housing in the post-Katrina city. Blogging New Orleans. For a more in-depth look at the New Orleans housing crisis, check out the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Committee.

In King County, WA, homeless advocates from ShareWheel took over some apartment buildings to protest their demolition. KNDO TV. ShareWheel runs one of the nation's longest-operating tent cities.

Edmonton, Alberta's homeless encampment is being fenced in by the city and residents are not happy. Not only will residents now have to have official ID cards, no one new is being allowed in. Edmonton Sun.

San Francisco's Mayor Newsom is determined to clean up all the homeless encampments in the city. For the story of one clean-up, see SFGate. Here's one man's story of how he became homeless and what it took for him to get out.

Edmonton photo by Tim Smith, Sun Media.

Meanwhile, the city of Lacey, WA is drawing up plans for an approved homeless encampment.Lacey is one of two Washington cities that recently decided to make homeless encampments legal. The Olympian.

You talking to ME?

A few weeks ago I stayed overnight at my daughter's house. I went outside about 6:30 am. the next morning to sit on the stairs and have a smoke.

A car pulled up across the street and a woman got out. She was talking to herself as she walked towards a neighboring house and in the morning's quiet I could hear her clearly.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "It doesn't matter. It. Doesn't. Matter."

I had about two seconds of thoughts rushing through my mind--My God, she sounds suicidal. Does my daughter know who she is? Should I say anything?-- before I realized she was talking on a cell phone.

Yesterday I saw two girls walking side by side down Hancock St. I won't say walking together, as each was on a cell phone talking to someone else!

I'm not a Luddite although I'm concerned about the consequences of technology driven by profit. But I wonder what it means that so few of us can stand to be alone with ourselves, Rather than cherish what little silence we have in our lives, we fear silence and try to banish it.

For a more cautionary look at cell phones, check out this Alternet article by Stanley Cox.

Wealth

I know no class of my fellowmen, however just, enlightened, and humane, which can be wisely and safely trusted absolutely with the liberties of any other class.

- Frederick Douglass

Sojourners

$50 hamburgers.
$700,000 inkpens.
$10 million dollar homes.
Private submarines.
Welcome to Richistan, U.S.A.

As a proud member of the working class, I read with interest an article by Paul Harris reprinted in yesterday's Alternet about the growing income disparity in the United States.

"In 2005 the top one per cent of earners in the US gained 14 per cent in income in real terms, while the rest of the country gained less than one per cent. The situation is especially bad for the severely poor -- those living at half the poverty level -- whose numbers are at a 32-year high."

So-- is Frederick Douglass' quote true for me, who is on the receiving end of the lack of liberty? (Think: the freedom to live without the fear of dire poverty and homelessness.) You bet. If it were within my power, the wealth of the truly rich would be distributed to reshape our communities, and the rich would have to live like the rest of us.

Correction to yesterday's post

Jerry just had some more back luck. Once he gets a job, as a homeless person, he will receive only $28 a month in food stamps, not the $98 I thought.

Once he is renting a room, and still working, he is eligible for $73 in food stamps-- again, not $98.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

put everything in late
still today I ate
my first cucumber

Is "getting a job" the solution to homelessness?

Bill Dusty, a fellow Western Mass blogger (Earth to Bill), had a comment on my post about the two young men I've known for about ten years who are homeless and currently living in a tent. Bill said what a lot of people would say: they need to get a job and find a way to overcome their background.

I'd like to see them have jobs, too. Working has psychological benefits that people can barely intuit when they're jobless.

But will working deliver you from homelessness and keep you in a home? I want to look at this assumption a little more closely.

First, let's not pay too much attention as to whether there are actually jobs to be had. Let's pretend that the local Wendy's franchise had not just closed, throwing 300 people out of work, and that Jerry, my friend, gets a job at Wendy's.

There really is no such thing as fulltime work in the service industry. My nephew Steve worked 30 hours a week at Wendy's, but it was actually 27.5-- you don't get paid for lunch or breaks.

Steve was paid minimum wage-- $7.50 an hour. So Jerry's gross pay would be $202.50 a week; if he claimed himself as a deduction, he'd take home $171.39 weekly, or, at 4 and a third weeks a month, $747 a month.

Steve worked second shift; his hours were divided among three days. So Jerry would take a bus one way three days a week and walk back to his tent three nights. That's $3 a week.

Steve's schedule was never fixed. He would always have to call in or be reachable by phone.That would cost Jerry $2.50 a week. It also makes it tough to get a second job, because if you turn down your boss too many times over schedule changes, you won't have your job long.

Wendy's has a few upfront expenses-- they provide the shirt, but you have to buy black shoes and black pants. Let's say Jerry finds the pants at the People's Center for free but has to pay $25 for a pair of black shoes.

Now, of course you have to keep your clothes clean. Let's say Jerry washes his clothes out by hand (in the Connecticut River?) twice a week but once a week, takes his clothes to the laundromat. That's $4.

Oops, I forgot about food. At Jerry's income, he would also be eligible for $98 a month in Food Stamps. Let's give Jerry some really good luck and figure he got his food stamps just before he got his job. So he has $24.50 a week to eat on. Because he doesn't get back to his tent until after midnight, getting a 7 am free breakfast is tending not to work, but he can get lunch at the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen. Food at Wendy's is not free, and you can't purchase it with food stamps. Let's allow Jerry to spend $4 for each of the three days he works-- not the first week,of course, nor the second week, which will be over before he gets his first paycheck.

The first week, Jerry won't get a paycheck, but he still has expenses. Let's hope a friend can loan him the money. The second week, Jerry gets $171.39. He pays back his friend for the first week expenses ($25 for shoes, $4 laundry, $2.50 phone, $3 bus. = $34.50) and has his own minimum expenses for that second week-- another $9.50. That's 171.39 minus $44, leaving Jerry $127.50 at the end of his first two weeks.

Now comes his third week at work. He takes home $171.39. He has a minimum $44 in expenses, plus the $12 we let him spend on his supper break at Wendy's, leaving $115.39. Assuming he has not spent even a penny of last week's money, Jerry now has a total of $242.89.

Time to look for a room, because at this rate, saving money for first, last and security is quite an undertaking. When rooms are available, they can be had for about $125 a week.

Now, let's see if we think Jerry can make it longterm.

Based on four and a third weeks, Jerry is taking home $747 and paying $541 for housing, leaving him $206 a month. Initially he's feeling quite flush and buys a bus pass for $36 a month, leaving $170. He still has to call in once a day ($10.75 a month) and go to the laundry weekly ($17.20 a month). Let's cut Jerry's supper allowance to $3 a working day (38.70 a month).

Now Jerry has $103.35 a month to live on. For the sake of round numbers, that's $25 a week in cash and $25 a week in food stamps.

Can we let Jerry buy toilet paper, sink detergent, toothpaste and a razor? A second pair of black pants? New underwear? An alarm clock? An extra blanket?

Moving toward the luxurious, how about a houseplant, a secondhand TV, a throw rug for the floor? If not the first month, how about the second?

I'm thinking that Jerry will have to be extraordinarily disciplined to pull this off.

We've given Jerry a lot of good luck; now let's give him some bad luck.

He's out sick for two days one week
OR
the rooming house goes up $10 a week on rent
OR
he gets robbed one week coming home from work
OR
his boss takes a dislike to him and cuts his hours in half
OR
the rooming house gets cited by Code Enforcement and has to close
OR
he goes to work one day and Wendy's is closed.

I don't write this to be discouraging to anybody, or to say there is no value in the work ethic.

I do say that no one should have to be extraordinarily lucky, extraordinarily intelligent or extraordinarily motivated just to survive in this world.

Most of us are average (or the word would have no meaning!). If our society is no longer structured to make it possible for the average person to live decently, we are in big trouble.

Friends in Tents - home is where the heart is

Earlier this week I went downtown for an Arise meeting. I arrived a bit early so I was hanging out in front of the building, having a smoke, when I heard someone call my name. I turned and saw five friends that I haven't seen since the Warming Place closed.

"Where are you guys, now?" I asked.

"We bought a six man tent and we're staying in it." I'm not going to say where they are-- it's not the riverbank-- but they seemed to be OK for the moment. They were waiting for one more of their friends to show up before they headed home for the night.

Of the six people, four of them are couples. That's one problem with the current sheltering system-- couples can't stay together. At the Warming Place, men and women slept in the same room, separated by dividers, but until it was time for Lights Out, the couples could spend time together. At The Friends of the Homeless shelter, like most other shelters that house both men and women (and there are few) , the sexes are completely separated.

I have actually known two of the guys, Jerry and Jack, since they were pre-teens.

Their dad used to be the custodian in a building we shared with a social service agency. His wife, a meek little woman who always reminded me of a Russian nesting doll, would come into Arise with the three kids and wait for dad to get out of work and we would chat. When the agency took some budget cuts, Dad got laid off. It was all downhill from there. Unemployment ran out, Dad couldn't find another job, they lost their apartment.

For a couple of years they all lived in an unregistered and immovable camper on a friends' property. During that time, Mom died of cancer. The daughter got pregnant and married her boyfriend (I hear they're doing well). Dad's diabetes got worse and he had a foot amputated. A few years after that, he passed away. The boys were sixteen and eighteen.

Jerry and Jack gave me a hug, which I felt I scarcely deserved, because all I have been able to do for them through the years is try to be someone who treated them with respect.

I read a study somewhere-- can't find it now-- that said nearly half of all homeless adults had experienced homelessness as children. One might think, reading the study, that we are talking about a sociological phenomenon, and indeed there are some elements of that, but I think of it primarily in economic terms-- Mom and Dad had absolutely NO material wealth to leave their children to get a foot up in this world.

Jerry and Jack have not completely lost their youthful optimism and their open hearts. Their smiles are still wide and not yet wary. l wish them well.

What's wrong with Springfield's homeless plans

I don't usually reprint an entire article, but this one is just too good...really puts a finger on the flaws in Phil Mangano's plans to end homelessness.

I will never forget sitting at the back of the room at Mayor Ryan's press conference about Springfield's ten year plan, and listening to Bush appointee Phil Mangano congratulate the city. The irony of a guy representing an administration that has decimated housing opportunities talking about ending chronic homelessness seemed to be lost on our public officials.

Seems they forgot the reason it’s called home-less-ness

By Paul Boden, Contributing columnist

The Republicans may have lost control of Congress, but they still maintain a tight rein on homeless policy and the public perception of homelessness. The House and Senate can change and change again, but thanks to the tireless efforts of the White House, Department of Housing and Urban Development and National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), the acknowledged “experts” on homelessness still are Phil Mangano with his traveling minstrel show, HUD with their federally funded studies, and White House award winning NAEH with their compassionate conservative approach to “ending homelessness.”

Immediately after last November’s elections, NAEH and Mangano (head of Bush’s Interagency Council on Homelessness) embarked upon editorial board tours around the country, to ensure that the administration’s 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness initiative would continue to be perceived as the One True Way to address homelessness. Their message is clear — that homelessness as we know it today is not caused by the lack of affordable housing, but by the failures of a few bottom-feeding individuals and emergency service programs.

They steer clear of the federal government’s refusal to preserve and promote affordable housing. Instead, they promote yet another set of plans to be created by communities already in competition with each other over scraps from their HUD master’s table. There are more than 470 Homeless Planning Boards as well as more than 200 10-Year Plans already in place, all competing for the biggest piece of the less than $1.4 billion HUD is allocated to dole out for homelessness assistance.

“$100 million has been added to homeless assistance!” they say, “George Bush cares, he really do.”

They don’t mention the $290 million cut from public housing operating expenses, or the thousands of security and maintenance workers laid-off from Public Housing Authorities, or the vacant units being sold off rather than renovated and rented to poor people. They don’t talk about the 100,000 public housing units lost between 1996 and 2005 nationwide. They certainly don’t talk about the zero funding for new public housing since 1996, and they are a bit reticent about the 4,000 undamaged public housing units being demolished in New Orleans along with those that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Chronic homelessness, they say, is the problem. Worry not, because once we solve that, we’ll get back to the other 90 percent of you poor schmucks without housing.

In the meantime, what we need are more plans in place to deal with us poor schmucks when we become chronic. And, they have even thoughtfully provided a step-by-step guide to writing effective 10-Year Plans, to help plan writers secure funds to alleviate the “visible impact” of “chronic homelessness” on their “community’s safety and attractiveness.” And in the meantime, the thousands of poor people and families losing their housing every year should just tough it out, (or perhaps chill out and smoke some “chronic”) until the chronics are under control.

In the meantime, housing subsidies are better directed toward mortgage lenders and wealthier households, to the tune of $122 billion a year; those pesky poor people looking for a place to rent can make do with the less than $30 billion, and decreasing, allocated to HUD.

Besides, housing has nothing to do with homelessness. HUD pays experts to write reports proving conclusively that what homeless people really need is biometric tracking, life skills training and leased single resident occupancy rooms with case managers in the front office, and they need 10-Year Plans to be written for them.

It’s funny that once upon a time, our federal government created HUD, a Social Security system, and the Works Progress Administration — all without having to write a single 10-Year Plan, and these programs actually worked!

2007 marks the 20th anniversary of the federal government’s primary response to contemporary homelessness, the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. The money provided by this act has become the lifeblood of National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Interagency Council on Homelessness as they promote the chronic homeless initiative and mobilize a policy movement in support of itself. After 20 years of writing plan after plan after plan on how “best” to spend McKinney money and “end homelessness,” there hasn’t been one damn plan to restore the cuts to federal funding for affordable housing, which is, after all, what got us here in the first place.

Tell Congress, tell the White House, tell your mama and your papa too. Say it to anyone who will listen and write it to those who won't. Nothing ends homelessness like a home.

Paul Boden is director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), based in San Francisco, and a leading activist against homelessness.

WRAP is a collaboration between six community organizations in California, Oregon and Washington, and the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.

WRAP’s members recently released an 88-page illustrated report titled “Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures.” A PDF file of the report can be downloaded for free at wraphome.org. From Street Roots.

Happy Birthday, Mitch Snyder

Belated, actually-- his birthday was a couple of weeks ago. God, I miss him. Mitch, a hardcore homeless and housing activist, is one of my heroes.

He came to Arise in 1988 and convinced us to turn out as many people as we could for a Washington, D.C. demonstration taking place the next year in support of the National Affordable Housing Act. This was a challenge for a poor people's organization, but, with other allies in Western Mass, we did it. I still have a picture of our group at the march, holding a Western Mass banner high and proudly, It's hung in my various offices for eighteen years.


"On July l4, 1988, attention and support for the "National Affordable Housing Act" was generated through actions in over seventy cities across the U.S.A. Most involved building take overs and other acts of civil disobedience.n October of 1989 the movement that Snyder helped create brought over 140,000 people to Washington to demand increased federal support for affordable housing.

Less than a year after that march on Washington Snyder was dead. He committed suicide in July of 1990." First Church Shelter, Cambridge.

This site talks about the accomplishments of Mitch's hunger fasts and acts of non-violent civil disobedience. I think Jim Stewart must have written it-- we had a chance to work together many years ago.

Mitch has been much on my mind these days, especially since Gerry McCafferty, the city's coordinator of homeless and special needs housing, mentioned Mitch in her opinion piece on homelessness in the Republican the Sunday before last. It turns out that Gerry was at that D.C. demonstration with Mitch, too. What she described as her most enduring memory of the day was being in a civil disobedience action and being yelled at by Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, one of the sponsors of the housing legislation, who told Mitch and her group was undermining support for the bill.

Gerry told this story as part of explaining why she was now seemingly on the other side-- working within the system.

My most enduring memory of the day was the sea of people, most poor, many homeless, feeling a sense of our power, feeling hope and belief in the possibility of change.

And, after all, the legislation did pass. I'll bet Barney Frank even voted for it.

I love the way people like Gerry have such selective memories about the role of poor people in social change, and about the use of direct action, civil and otherwise, as a catalyst for that change.

Was homelessness even on the city of Springfield, Massachusetts' radar before Larry Dunham froze to death? Was there a plan before homeless people organized a tent city in the spring that lasted six months? I know there was not.

Recently I went back and reread the entire Homes within Reach document, the city's plan to end chronic homelessness within ten years. The plan does well making use of scarce resources to accomplish as much as possible. However, one resource left totally untapped is homeless and at-risk.people themselves.

I was supposed to be on that task force, along with Christina, one of the leaders of Sanctuary City. We were each at a couple of meetings, but then somehow never got notices....I'd call Russ Denver's office, then chair of the task force and still head of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, and ask when the next meetings were taking place...but we never heard...and then we heard there was a draft plan and it could be revised....but you know what it's like, once the solution is framed, all that's allowed after that is fine-tuning. (Nothing like splitting into subcommittees to limit the real number of decision-makers.

At the heart of all of this, of course, is class prejudice and self-interest, manifesting as the need to control those deemed lesser than you who are also perceived as a threat to your well-being.

Why else would human service workers talk about "servicing" people?
Why else would the Department of Transitional Assistance call a family in need "an assistance unit?"
Why else would the desires of homeless people be discounted so that those who "know better"can make the decisions?

The city is happy, now; the powers that be have had their way, the Warming Place shelter has been forced to close and the plan to end homelessness is underway. I hope the best of it succeeds, but the "managing" and "handling" of homeless people makes me sick.

Tonight when I was looking up a few facts about Mitch, I stumbled on a blog called Apesmas' Lament-- and a post just written on July19!--about the writer's memories of Mitch Snyder. It's a great piece and deserves reading. He talks about the Port of Seattle's refusal to sell to King County 162 apartments that could be made available to desperately poor people, choosing instead to demolish them. He ends by asking, "I wonder what Mitch would do?"

That's one of the questions I ask myself. Now, when many poor people start asking that question.....

A personal note

Haven't been feeling so great lately and have been really busy with my job so not blogging as much as I like, but just got back from an Arise meeting and that always psychs me up more than it wears me out, so in a bit I'll try to catch up with some homeless news, local and otherwise.

Someone who reads this blog told me it was interesting that I went back and forth between the personal and the political in my posts. That surprised me a bit, I'll admit, because although I do sometimes share my personal observations, I don't think I tell you much about my personal life-- not where I live, or the names of my children, not where I work or whether I'm in a relationship-- I suppose the longer I blog, the more that will come out.

Local readers, of course, know me more well. I am still banned from MassLive and still don't know why. As much as my views differ from most of the MassLive posters, the Springfield forum is still a community of sorts, with the opportunity (even if frequently squandered) to share information and build a collective knowledge. I am, however, one of the very few people to post under my name, so I don't know much about my fellow forum members-- and I don't comb their posts looking for clues, either. Still, it doesn't feel good to get cut off. from that community.

The two pictures in this post are two sides of me.