| And we didn't have to waste any time getting involved in political activities around homelessness here. One of the first things we saw upon our arrival in Portland was the Food Not Bombs table in the North Park Blocks, as it was a Saturday afternoon when they serve. (There was also a thriving Food Not Bombs group in Boston that is closely connected with the HCRP.) So we promptly went over and introduced ourselves to them and gave them a few copies of the Homeless Times we'd brought. Within a couple of weeks we were working with them in planning the Christmastime events which culminated in the homeless protest at City Hall. It was so much easier to write about homelessness and police harassment in the good old days when I had a home and the cops weren't on MY doorstep and I could therefore keep the whole issue at arm's length. It was happening to people I loved, but not to me. Now I am directly on the firing line, and life has become a hundred times more uncomfortable. Furthermore, there isn't necessarily any light at the end of the tunnel. Not only is our homeless condition lasting much longer than we'd hoped, but we also are not getting the support we had thought we were entitled to expect for trying to CHANGE it. Instead of encouragement, we are getting every manner of discriminatory treatment from cops and other people who assume us to be either vagrants or dope dealers or burglars or alcoholics or some kind of troublemakers, or various combinations of all of the above. It doesn't seem to be recognized that ANY category of person in ANY social class can become temporarily homeless for ANY of a number of reasons, and that they should be judged not by their homeless condition but how hard they are trying in all the legitimate ways to END it! Instead it is assumed that one's homelessness is symptomatic of a "wrong" attitude which makes it a chronic condition, and that it should therefore be punished. It all comes down to blaming the victim. So that's where we stand today. We went to the City Hall demonstration in the hope of helping to educate the public about people in our situation by talking to city officials and reporters about it, as well as to get support from other people in similar straits. How much we accomplish in the long run by doing this, as I've said, remains to be seen. (Click here for the next article) |