begins part 2Four-Dimensional People
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"Shortly after his return home, Anthony stepped into what he considers the first level of homelessness - living with friends; and bouncing from house to house, apartment to apartment. While he did manage to sleep with a roof over his head every night and have a place to shower and relax, he did not have his own home. He never knew if he�d have that same home to sleep in the next night, he had to abide by the homeowner�s rules, and had no ownership or authority over anything in these dwellings. However, Anthony eventually exhausted all his options and was forced to join the ranks of what the non-homeless consider homelessness to be � living on the streets and spending nights in shelters.
"Anthony said he never had to dig to the bottoms of trashcans to find food, but had, at times, eaten food sitting at the top of a pile of trash in a waste basket. As odd as it may sound, there is a difference and the depths (literally) to which one will go to find food says a lot about how far into homelessness one is."
"Anthony thinks �the system� really needs to reflect on its programs and find ways to improve them. He feels that instead of allowing a bunch of �rich bureaucrats� to make 100 percent of the decisions...the homeless population should be given more of a voice."
"Anthony suggests that rather than putting the homeless into a situation that doesn�t help them save money, programs should be created to provide the opportunity for the homeless to work for their homes."
Furthermore, Anthony says �the system� needs to be more honest. They always talk about resources they will provide, but when you try to access them, they aren�t there. He also frets that a lot of homeless shelters or outreach programs are too institutionalized and aren�t much different than being in jail.
www.signsoflight.org/homeful/pages/connections/anthony.html
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To various degrees Anthony's plight befalls many hundreds of thousands of people a year. This progression into street-life can be viewed as a line that is crossed many times, or unfortunately sometimes followed to it's inevitable conclusion.
What happens here is a problem in New York City as well as Anthony's Philadelphia. Getting something accomplished when dealing with people programed to be unproductive (such as the social workers, bureaucrats,...etc.) is much like trying to take a shower with half-a-trickle of water. It can be done, if you have the time.
But "time" is what the homeless person is lacking. Remember that in our society "time is money". And because homeless people lack one, they are denied the other. That is the nature of this dilemma. GAbzage in garbage out, who make's the first move toward change? Since the homeless have no authority, so it is up to the people of the City to inform their civil servants... settle the war on poverty and return access to water for the people.
The Newtonian interpretation of our "real" world has been superceded by Quantum Physics and Relativity. Proven by the existence of
computers, lasers and nuclear weapons. And yet, the Newtonian model
is still the basis of social and interpersonal development.
The idea that people are fixed solid bodies propelled solely by
economic forces into predetermined orbits is an economic model based
on a mechanistic concept of the way the world works. Life in a three dimensional universe. People fixed and set apart. Unconnected, unless they collide.
A deterministic view of human existence, and it continues to inform
the way we handle the "homeless". It is time to add the fourth dimmension, that of Time.
What we now know about the physical world far exceeds our
understanding and application of this knowledge to interpersonal
relationships, or even the structure of our own personal immediate
physical space.
Whose City is it anyway?
If it were simply economics the answer can be found in an instant.
Money is a powerful tool and as dangerous as any power tool.
If used by someone who does not know what they are doing serious
damage can happen.
When using a power tool or any tool, one of the fundamental
priciples you learn is never point the thing in your own direction,
unless you are paying serious attention. To think what money can do
when you slip, think M. Jackson or H. Hughes.
Money moves power equipment, demonstrating a greater power. Money
moves, but the City does not. The City allows money to flow.
Ownership and it's rules are not of primary interest. If only three
people inhabit the City, they know what's what and whose it is. More
people doesn't chang the nature of what at issue. Complexity comes
from accounting.
Three or thirty million, people are together for a reason beyond
their individual economic need. They are there because the Ciity
needs them, or someone like them, and in return will provide for them
and theirs. For an economic payout people will get in return a field
of activity beyond themselves and those they know... a City is more
than the individuals that pass through it's field.
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