Trouble In Paper Land

it is becoming clear that the content of the “homeless” newspaper is being geared towards appeasing the homeless while actually forwarding the anti-homeless agenda of the businesses and residents living downtown.

Well, I’ve been spending all my time, doing my part to start up this new homeless newspaper for Nashville. And as we are getting down to the wire, things are starting to crack up, including me. I have told the other members of the steering committee that I am pulling out of the paper – pulling out my support of it, as well as the pieces I’ve written.

And I’ll tell you why. As the paper is quickly formulating, it is becoming clear that the content of the “homeless” newspaper is being geared towards appeasing the homeless while actually forwarding the anti-homeless agenda of the businesses and residents living downtown. My conscience just won’t let me participate. There are other internal struggles as well, mostly with Tasha French, who is heading up this project, and her control issues. I’ve found myself being continually marginalized by her at every step in the process of building this paper. I’ve put a lot of work into this paper, spending a lot of my social currency promoting it. And she’s wanting to take credit for all that? I don’t think so.

Unless she works fast to do some damage control, I’m completely out. I am really sceptical that anything good for the homeless can come from this paper, in its current form. So, I’ll be unpromoting it from now on.

If they care to, the people developing this paper can save our relationship by talking to me, but right now they’re not saying a word. Being mute is not going to do them any good.

Ya know, I didn’t spend all that time writing these articles for them to never be read. So, I’m going to include them here, below.

Article #1: Nashville Homeless Memorial

“The death rates of homeless persons are three times the rates of other Americans, and their life expectancy is a mere 50 years, compared to 78 for the general population,” said John Lozier, Executive Director of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

In 1992 the National Coalition for The Homeless declared December 21^st as National Homeless Memorial Day. It is the first day of winter, and the longest night of the year. This day was chosen so to highlight the harsh environment homeless people are forced to deal with while trying to survive. On this day, please take a moment to consider the lives lost forever to homelessness, and if you can, say a little prayer on behalf of those homeless people still struggling, that they may survive it all, that they may find a love for life again.

The Homeless Power Project will conduct a ceremony for the homeless who have died this past year in Nashville. It will take place at Riverfront Park, December 15^th at 9AM.

In the press release that The Contributor received from the Nashville Homeless Power Project concerning their homeless memorial ceremony there was this directive:

“Edit as needed although we request that the political language not be taken out as this is unapologetically a political ceremony.”

Whenever a cause, or organization, becomes more important than the people it is supposedly trying to help, it cripples itself, and becomes incapacitated. The Nashville Rescue Mission places itself ahead of the homeless it claims to serve and has become largely ineffectual. In co-opting the Homeless Memorial, the Nashville Homeless Power Project loses its legitimacy. Even in the creation of this homeless newspaper, The Contributor staff has ha to wrestle with this temptation. The needs of this paper should never supplant the needs of the homeless. Hopefully, whenever faced with a decision between helping the homeless, and helping the paper, the paper will acquiesce.

Any memorial, especially this one, should be a time of reverence, and solemnity. It should be about honoring family and friends who have passed on. Especially the Homeless Memorial, it should be a time of giving respect and dignity to those who were not afforded as much in life. Turning this event into a political action is disingenuous and disrespectful. As seen recently, we don’t allow people to turn the funerals of our fallen soldiers into political rallies. Why should we do so with the deaths of the homeless? There is time and space enough for politics on another day.

Article #2: Hope and The Homeless Guy

It really is something what little hope homeless people cling to, so to survive each day. Billy Graham once said that if a man were to lose all hope, he would die. If that is true, and it just may be, then homeless people live in the shadow of death.

When you are homeless, all of life seems to conspire against you. Family and friends reject you. New acquaintances mistrust you. No one wants to give you a real break, like with a good paying job. And people may well feel it acceptable to renege on promises to you. Yet, when you find the rare sole willing to give you an honest break, you seldom have the means by which to fulfill the requirements of that employment. You do not know if you will have access to clean clothes, or will be able to shower every day, or will have enough rest and nutrition to do the job properly. All the while, people are demanding of you to “get a job,” as if it is the cure to your homelessness. The coping skills necessary for dealing with “normal” life are not enough to deal with the increased stress of homeless life. And the temptation is great to escape the reality of homelessness through drugs and alcohol and mental illness. A homeless person many choose these things as means of coping, but homeless people never choose the situations and conditions that bring about the need for escape.

As advanced as our society is, it still deems prejudice towards homeless people as acceptable. Those who dare not say a disparaging word against women or minorities are often found slandering homeless people. As a homeless person, you do not belong anywhere, and people are quick to remind you of that. The police are spending more time dealing with homeless issues, not because homeless people are becoming more anti-social, but because society is becoming more anti-homeless. Increasingly, society perceives homelessness as a crime. This means that related issues, such as poverty and drug addiction and mental illness are now being perceived as crimes. And, instead of school society about the Constitution and Equal Protection Under the Law, the police. And the police appease society’s complainants, giving them a legitimacy they don’t deserve. From events I’ve witnessed, the police have no qualms about violating the rights of homeless people with unwarranted stops and searches. The police are now getting involved in enforcing health codes, which I believe is a first in the history of Nashville. Of course the police are not involving themselves in other food distribution programs, like tailgating parties and company picnics. And from what I understand, when a law is purposely enforced against one segment of the population, but not on another, then you have a violation of civil rights.

All the while, homeless people are falling prey to the people and systems that are supposedly designed to help the homeless. It is common for homeless people to pray to be rescued from rescue missions. And, instead of working together for the common cause, homeless service providers are becoming increasingly territorial and competitive, while becoming increasingly indifferent, if not outright contemptuous towards those they profess to help.

In all of this, how are homeless people to maintain and foster the hope necessary for survival? The homeless you see on the streets are not dead yet. Within them, though infinitesimally small, there must be hope. Perhaps it is only a dream they cling to, that tomorrow will be a better day. Such a dream can suffice, for a while. To give in to homelessness is to give up hope and embrace death.

Recently, I had been falling into this shadow. I was struggling to see a purpose in living. I was giving in to despair. And then, unexpectedly, a ghost from my past reappeared – my exwife. It had been a very long time since hearing anything from her. And what she had to say was so encouraging, it was inspiring. She wants to attempt reconciliation. She wants me to be able to see my children – to have a real relationship with them. I haven’t seen them in seven very long years.

How often had I wished for this? How unlikely did it seem? How close had I come to giving up all hope of this ever happening? Yet a reason for living came my way. It is said that “God is always on time.” I won’t dispute that. But I don’t know how much more of this, on-the-verge-of-despair, redemption I can handle.

Article #3: Homelessness Radio Marathon

Nashville has been chosen to host the 11th Annual Homelessness Radio Marathon. This past summer Jeremy Alderson, creator of the marathon, scouted Nashville for possible sites from which to broadcast. The Campus for Human Development, a homeless services provider in downtown Nashville, was determined the best possible location. The broadcast will begin February 20th, 2008, at 7PM, and will continue through the night for 14 hours. The show is held outside, during the middle of winter, to highlight the difficulties homeless people face in trying to survive the elements. The broadcast will be picked up by over 140 radio stations across the country. The Radio Marathon is in a talk show format and will feature discussions with homeless people and local service providers, as they discuss the current state of homelessness. This show will go a long way towards raising awareness, and educating the public about the realities of homelessness. For more information, you can contact Jeremy via email at director@homelessnessmarathon.org. The broadcast has a website at http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org.

Article #4 was just a reprint of my “gift bags for the homeless” which you can find above the blog banner.