Re: [Mpls] Volunteers (was CLass Warfare)

[WizardMarks]

Actually, the feds could expand the VISTA program. It pays bupkis, but the pay is sheltered from impacting something like SSI or food stamps, what have you. For some people it holds out the promise of money for further education ($4,500 for each year you serve), for others it's the opportunity to do something in their own neighborhoods that would benefit from some concentrated effort. For still others it works as an internship which requires new skills to improve resumes. This is a dandy program for neighborhoods to use to strengthen staff, have better impact with doorknocking, flyering, covering meetings, etc.

WizardMarks, Central

Fredric Markus wrote:

Volunteerism will necessarily bear a greater burden as other funding
sources go away, but remember the 1000 points of light? There are the
same problems of capacity now as ever in the hope that private efforts
can pick up where the public realm leaves off. We do what we can, rich
and poor alike, but there some tasks that can't be done without the
public's purse.

That's the challenge now, from the feds on down, and I'm not much
impressed by the niceties of political argument. There isn't enough
public money to go around and some of our quality of life will
inevitably suffer until we find the public will to pick up the slack. We
can't house thousands of homeless people with voluntary efforts and
however we become more cognizant of personal sacrifice as a needful
civic virtue we can't feed everybody either.

It's been a great run for the last few years and now yikes! Maybe we
won't be buying that new Hummer after all.
Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten, in the Lyndale Neighborhood
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