MH:
I would encourage those who have stated they really want to work on ending
homelessness to join me at the Kaplan's and also at the Mayor's next open
house.
If you do not care for my style of addressing the social injustice of
homelessness, I would encourage you to contact the Minesota Coalition for the
Homeless or the National Coalition for the Homeless as they also have a course of
action that you may wish to join with.
The Coalitions should have information on the "Bringing America Home Act"
which needs support from all of us to get it accomplished.
They also have information on many other ways to address this issue.
There is also the Poverty Law Center web site that talks of their work to
address the violation of people's civil rights based on their economic and
housing status.
If you are more into social service action-- please contact St.
Stephen's, Our Saviors, Simpson Shelters who will tell you how you can help or
volunteer, or they will give you names of the other shelters in the area.
Or you can go to Housing Day on the Hill at the Capital (I believe it is
in February), and lobby the legislature.
Or you can educate yourself on the multiple ways in which resources and
social acitivism to eliminate homelessness are already out there, but need the
funding and political support of our leaders to accomplish.
In the case of those who say they want to help, but need a plan--- I have
given you resources to educate yourselves and resources that offer multiple
plans for you to engage in and contribute to.
For myself, I am a political activist who believes that this issue
remains way to ignored and invisible and politicians (such as our Mayor) need to
have it put in front of them.
JP:
Okay so it sounds as if you don't actually have a plan or goals beyond
hounding the Mayor to comment on his personal feelings on matters like bridge rods
which aren't under his jurisdiction. I'm not certain how this does anything to
address the homelessness issue, but I notice it does give you a lot of
attention. It's not that I don't care for your "style of addressing the social
injustice of homelessness", it's that it doesn't appear as if your "style" has
anything to do with addressing any social injustice, and more to do with using
homelessness as a soapbox. I could be wrong, but then again, we'll never know
because if you actually have an agenda or specific goals you refuse to put them
out.
If you have them.
It is hypocritical to decry any person for being inaccessible or avoiding the
issue when you do the same thing. More so, it is misleading as well as
hypocritical to call yourself a "a political activist who believes that this issue
remains way to ignored and invisible and politicians (such as our Mayor) need
to have it put in front of them." when you only seem to target one politician
and again don't have a plan of action or ideas about how to get the job done.
Ultimately, it takes not only focus away from the core issue (homelessness),
and turns people off and away from helping out.
And that's the reason I'm asking these questions and have offered help and
suggestions, because this is a serious issue that is more important than you
getting an interview, and it can't be addressed by spouting a laundry list of
organizations that work on issues and saying "go talk to them". You're
encouraging "those who have stated they really want to work on ending homelessness" to
join you at the Kaplans but you refuse to say why and to what end. Going with
the best case scenario again, everyone going to the Kaplans (the Mayor
included) stops and says "Margaret, we agree that this is an important issue, we're
not going to go to the fundraiser, what can we do?" The problem is that
leaves you standing there with nothing to do or say because you don't have an
agenda or action steps. Everyone then walks away less inclined to help because the
"political activist" who works on this issue doesn't have a plan, so how are
they to envision it as something to work on?
Again, I'll ask what you hope to accomplish. What purpose is served by
standing out there. Even if RT does speak to you, what does that get you? What
does it get the homeless? I think that they're more concerned with eating and a
place to sleep over your "getting the shot". If you can't answer questions
like this, if you don't have clear goals and plans, then every time you stand
on a soapbox or shout about the problem not being address, it decreases the
effectiveness of the other organizations and lowers the public interest in
addressing the issue. People become desensitized, and it makes it that much harder
to develop and implement solutions. So I'm unclear why, since you claim and
I'll even say seem to care about this issue passionately, you would not only be
willing to present an agenda, action steps or even insight beyond "do what
I'm telling you to because this is the way people who really care about the
issue do things"; I'm unclear why you wouldn't want as much help as possible in
solving the problem.
Jonathan Palmer
Victory
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