What's for dinner in America?

Cooking the homeless?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/19/jerome-murdough_n_4993423.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

The economics that drive the prison "industry" UGH!!

Here's a story from NPR today...one more example of profits before people...and how "privatizing" in many cases is a dirty word. Check it out here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

Relo....

Since moving to Hollywood about a year ago my focus has changed a bit...in a way I've become even more in tune with the crisis of homelessness.

At Hollywood Lutheran Church we've been working to help avoid recidivism among parolees, and we're learning lots of important lessons. It's so easy to want to over help...to make life easier for people by simply providing for them. But in so many cases, that kind of care and concern has made exacerbated the problem. Take people away from the "edge" and there's less motivation to find permanent and supportive environments. For providers, finding balance between helping and harming is almost an art form.

But here's the key: people have to live their own lives. As painful as that is, at times, it may mean that the choices they make wind them up in all kind of messes. We can help people see how alternative choices may be better for them, but we can't make those choices for them. Many providers need to "move out" of old ways of doing things and find new paradigms for assistance: not models of giving, but models of accompanying.

Unsubstantiated....as usual

The things people will take as "fact" without any verification never cease to amaze me. It's as if people already "know" what they want to know.

Case in point...an article in the LA Times this morning about squatters living in an old TV studio in Hollywood. Here's a quote: "Transients are already drawn to the area by services that include free food, medical care and a needle exchange."

Simply put, there is no evidence to support this statement. It's just what people want to believe, one more excuse not to help.

Another Modest Proposal...

In the spirit of Jonathan Swift and his A Modest Proposal, I've found a solution to two problems nagging at the Long Beach city council.

Today (April 30, 2009) the Los Angeles Times reported a possible scheme to transform the Queen Mary from questionable asset to profit center: a transformation that would set her sailing again.

At the same time, the city continues to grapple with the growing issue of homelessness. Indeed, many in the city's neighborhoods are getting worked up over the city's proposed land deal with the Defense Department to obtain control of the Schroeder Hall site for use as a police sub-station, with the stipulation that a facility to assist the homeless be added next to the city's health department in a light industrial area down the street.

Why not kill two birds with one stone? Use the old Queen as an enticement to the city's homeless--lure them on board with the promise of a better life--bring them out to sea (international waters, of course) and pitch them overboard!

It's a solution old Jonathan would likely approve of...and might even become the subject of a tawdry made-for-TV movie (another possible source of income for beleaguered Long Beach!)

Prop 63 (MHSA) works! Vote "NO" on 1E

Too close for comfort?