At Home On The (Fantasy) Island Those who want objective info on homeless can go to: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/causes.html And: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/who.html
Anyway, so I drove by "The Island" and realized there are stories there that somone SHOULD write, and they have nothing to do with the homeless. Like, WHY does such a thing EXIST? These things don't grow like weeds. Somebody had to spend MY money for something with no obvious function at all. Something like that runs down the middle of Highland Parkway in St Paul, down the middle of Summit Ave, down the middle of any number of posh avenues. But this? This is about a block long on a street going from nowhere to nowhere. The businesses are kind of nondescript, not the kind of thing the city government would tout by providing a parklike setting.
And another story someone should write, about the irony of choices in a society like ours. That phrase "public urination" resonates with a world of speculation. We don't like it. But we won't spend a DIME to provide the sensible solution, namely, in which it can happen in a non-public way. There were a LOT more public bathrooms when I moved here in the 60's. I think Reaganism signaled the move to eliminate them. So now all we can do is rail against the natural consequence of society's action. Noplace private? Then it will happen publicly!
And that leads to the LAST unwritten story. The problem with the poor is that they EXIST. If they can't get rich enough to afford what all DECENT folk have, they should at least dematerialize. Because our consciences can't bear the weight of the gas chambers and crematoria which "solved" such problems in bygone eras. We love this society based on winners and losers; but we hate how the losers act once they have lost. It is simple. We just can't stand the CONSEQUENCES of our own tastes. We want sin without guilt.
Linda Berglin
So, if she said "criminal predator", what does that encompass? Is a prostitute hooked on crack a "criminal predator"? Is someone who enjoys a joint a "criminal predator". Some predators operate legal businesses. Some rape, do time, get out, rape again. Jim G drags in the senator for his agenda, but we should hear from HER what she meant. Jim has lots of reasons to assume she was agreeing with him. By the way, it just struck me in reading his loooonnnng diatribe how much he sounds like John Ashcroft. Crying "emergency" is the way you enable the idea that civil rights are "too costly" (only limousine liberals really like them).
________________________________________ Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis, MN We think. You'll like it here. And we're more fun than a barrel of Norwegians
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