| LIBERTADKORPS |
 |
| AARON BEAUCAGE [email protected] NICKELSVILLE INTERVIEWS Interviews by Tom Hastings � 2008 Beau is in his 30�s, a big robust African American who looks like a linebacker and sounds like Malcolm X. Beau speaks without stammering or hesitation, in a clear bass-boom voice meant for radio. BEAU I�m homeless because my last employer, a trucking company, wanted to start paying me monthly, then as we say in the South, they �pencil-whipped� me. I could barely survive even with a decent trucking company. Then all the freight slowed down. THERE IS NO AFFORDABLE HOUSING HERE. If I had $1,500 and there was affordable housing, I would be happy to rent. You need that much cash, and credit checks and background checks and DNA samples just to rent a room these days. Cheapest apartment here is over $700 per month. I was staying in those awful motel rooms on Aurora Avenue North so I could pay by the week, but even the worst motel room is $900-$1,300 per month. I was in Seattle ten years ago when you could rent a room for just $100 per week. I�m not mentally ill. I�m not a drunk. I don�t do drugs. I don�t suffer childhood trauma. THIS IS A HOUSING ISSUE AND AN ECONOMIC ISSUE. I still own my van and do odd jobs. But I don�t want to work for another trucking company. The whole trucking industry is falling apart. DOT weigh-station inspectors are issuing more and more tickets against you, because there is less freight and fewer truckers on the road, but the DOT still gotta make its money. Your employer doesn�t fix your equipment properly. So you are put in a position of losing your license just to keep a small check rolling in, being forced to violate the law to fight just to get one load. If I wind up running over an old lady because my truck is not safe because my employer is not maintaining it, reporters will say it was the trucker�s fault. You always feel pressure to drive too long without sleep. And if you refuse to drive too long without sleep, they�ll just give the load to someone else�. I�d rather be homeless than lose my trucker license�. The last time I drove a truck, I was standing next to a Mexican with a Mexican passport, who was driving an American truck. So it�s absurd to say, well, we trained you for this skilled job. You only have this job at the whim of some CEO who makes $200 million. The job could be outsourced tomorrow. No job security�. Really a no-win situation now. I lived in London, England for five years. Got a girlfriend and daughter who live in Indonesia. I went to London Metropolitan University for two years. Worked my way through college doing security. You think London is expensive but actually it is cheap because everyone lives in council flats�. In England you may pay 40-50% tax, but somehow at the end of the month you easily save �200�. Just look at health insurance: In London my daughter enjoyed free medical care and a decent place to live. Mayor Nickels says there is a shelter bed for every homeless person. That is an absolute lie. I propose a new kind of Reality Show: Give me some executives from the Mayor�s office. Take away their credit cards and let them run themselves through this shelter system: THIS SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK: You have to line up around the block just to get a mat. You are forced to lay next to some guy with hepatitis, TB, who knows what. Or the shelter is full and you don�t get in. Or you have to listen to some Christian preacher sermon just to get your soup. DESC refused to take me because I�m not crazy and I�m not on meds. Some places only let you take a shower during the day. So if you work some job during the day you cannot shower. And if you work in the evening you lose your shelter bed�. Bread of Life charges $5 per night�. I stayed at Union Gospel Mission and got bites from bedbugs�. Other shelters don�t open until 10PM but they kick you out before 6AM�. EVER CARRY YOUR BAGS AT THE AIRPORT? TRY DOING IT FOR A LIVING! I�M PROUD TO BE PART OF NICKELSVILLE! Nickelsville and Tent City are a thousand times better than those downtown shelters. We are stronger when we come together and have a voice�. Would I do all this if I had affordable housing and a room indoors? Of course not! ARE YOU COLD RIGHT NOW? Sure, you can see your breath. I would love to be in a warm little room with a bed and a drawer and a TV, taking a hot shower. Yet the Mayor says I�m out here just to piss off The Man! LOOK, YOU WANT TO GET RID OF HOMELESSNESS? GIVE US AFFORDABLE HOUSING! That immediately gets rid of half of us. So then you just get rid of the other half: There should be no mentally ill people living on the street, not in America, the richest nation on earth. WANT TO GET RID OF ME? All I need is a shanty, some shack I can build, with some place where I can park my van�. What landlord would risk renting to the working poor as this economy collapses? UW group house landlords charge $450 for a tiny room no bigger than this tent. That�s criminal. I�d rather live in my own shanty in the woods, work some jobs, save some money to send to my daughter, rather than hand all my money to some landlord for an apartment that does nothing but drain resources and put more money into the pockets of the exact same people who put me out here in the first place! Big Business is driving all this grim competition�. Bioneers reported CEO�s supplying tomatoes for Taco Bell get $200 million in bonuses yet they refuse to give farmers a raise of ten cents per bushel! THAT�S NOT SICK? I�M SOMEHOW WORSE THAN THOSE CEO�S BECAUSE I LIVE IN A TENT? Sure I�m proud of Obama�. But I�m a trucker with a bad back�. The only power landlords and real estate speculators have is what we allow them to have�. I love Amy Goodman�s DEMOCRACY NOW. Naomi Klein spoke at Bioneers out here�. Sure, we are seeing THE SHOCK DOCTRINE and DISASTER CAPITALISM in America now�. WE NEED A COMPLETE OVERHAUL! You can put me in a room full of billionaires and my heart won�t jump a beat, because I see right through their greed. But my heart sure would jump if I got to meet the Dalai Lama! |
| Spud Brubaker, Aaron Colyer |
| Dave, Aaron Beaucage, Aaron Colyer |
| Matt |
| Robert and Aaron Colyer |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Aaron Beaucage at new Nickelsville site |
| Aaron Beaucage at grill of the eternal flame |
 |