Jim Mork writes: >"Don set up some of the scenarios so that the central character could NOT move on her income. The apartment she had was what she could pay for. We were left to solve her issues with that constraint. We COULD have said "Well, if there was subsidized housing in Kenwood, she could move there and BINGO! her other problems go away." Don might have called that "one-dimensional thinking". I would have called it "fantasy". The thing is, not ALL the problems could be solved that way."< Mr. Mork is correct, not all problems could be solved that way. Now, allow me to inject a little reality into Mork's fantasy. People with incomes as low as that receive subsidies, and those subsidies can be applied County-wide, so in fact people with income subsidies end up paying a certain percentage of income where ever the housing is located. The hard working poor are the problem--they usually do not qualify for assistance and medical care or even medical coverage from Minnesota Care. (If Mork wants to harp about Pawlenty, that is the place to go, because it is probably the greatest hardship for working poor.) Mork continues: >"One was a boy who had no realistic goal in life. How would a change of address GIVE him one? Probably couldn't. Part of the reason impacted neighborhoods are the way they are is the condition people are in who fall into them. And you just can't run away from dysfunctional patterns. When I moved, my wife and I were doing rather well. In fact, THAT was why we COULD move. Had we been addicted, lazy, depressed, or any of a host of other personal problems, it might have trapped us where we were."< I am amazed that neither Mork nor possibly Don Samuels (though I do not believe Don has such ideas) cannot realize that part of the "depression, the laziness and the addiction" is a result of the fact that because people do not have opportunities and are trapped in poor neighborhoods by the City's policy of concentrating substandard housing and poverty there. Also, had Mr. Mork not had the parents he had, the opportunities these parents afforded him, and yes, possibly the skin color he has, he might not have done "rather well". But I would like to thank him, for what he does is rip the mask off Minnesota Nice. Mork actually seems to believe that the reason people are condemned to live in the "concentration ghettoes" is because they are "addicted, lazy, depressed, or any of a host of other problems". It is as if he actually believes that those who are forced to live there deserve to live there. The self-righteousness and the gross insensitivity demonstrated by such a statement and inherent in such a belief are appalling. What Mr. Mork does NOT seem to realize, indeed what his mindset actively precludes him from realizing, is that the purpose of de-concentration is to afford others with the same opportunities that Mork seems to think he deserves. That is, to be "rather well off". > " But at Don's workshop, most of us didn't try to change the person, we just tried to see what could be fixed given the person needed some security in situ. Don said people his color seldom come to community meetings. As a result, the Jordan neighborhood leadership consists of people who come, namely, the white minority. Needless to say, it creates a problem for Mr. Samuels. These leaders are fired up about neighborhood improvement, but when he tries to give his perspective, he sometimes loses their involvement because they get insulted." If Don actually said that, he must have meant it in a different context. Having spent time talking to Don Samuels, I cannot believe his words were intended to mean what Mork implies they mean. What Mork missed is that the people who attend "community meetings" are homeowners. The Latino people, the Asian people, the Indian people, and yes, even the Black people who attend are for the most part homeowners. The way to increase resident participation is to increase homeownership. The problem is that certain segments of our society have not had the same cultural and financial access to homeownership. This includes poor White people, by the way, but in particular it has harmed Black people and Indian people. The way to break that cycle of poverty and "depression" is not a secret, and it is, moreover, the most economical one for taxpayers. It is affordable home ownership! Even the Republicans understand this much. Secretary of HUD Martinez has said that the best way to end poverty in this country is "affordable homeownership". I am ashamed that my own Democratic party is allowing the Republicans to seize the issue when we Democrats are supposed to be the ones most concerned with the plight of the poor and the "common man". But sub-consciously, many like Mork feel that these "depressed, addicted, and lazy" people (who are "concentrated" in their neighborhoods by the City of Minneapolis) deserve no better. As I have said before, some Bible-spouting Christians need to read about the Good Samaritan and Jesus in that book they're always on about. Weber's protestant ethic is apparently still alive and well in twenty-first century America. I may be wrong, but wasn't that one of the justifications for slavery, that they were "dysfunctional and lazy" and deserved no better? Sounds familiar in Twenty-First Century America too, doesn't it? Some seem to be saying, "Those poor and homeless people don't deserve to live out where I have worked hard to become "well off "enough to move to. They deserve to have NO choice but to be 'trapped' in the concentration areas". Mork says about Don Samuels: "It made him say "What a COMPLEX thing this racism thing is!" Yes, racism and classism are both complex, and, may I add, well beyond or out of the awareness of most in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, it is not the "bad" people, but rather the "good" people who insist on their ignorance, who are the real problem. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than >sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
