9:58 PM - Playing in the ketchup...
Current mood: content
Category: Life
Just a quick catchup on where I am and where I've been, because it's been so long since I've been active on MySpace:
I went through a depression; my body chemistry is just changing with age, and the things that worked for years to keep me stable stopped working. I've pulled out of it.
I've been gardening a lot. That helped, a lot. I'm keeping a garden blog.
I performed at Folklife with the Raging Grannies, May 27. You can see some video of it on Wes's Runoff blog.
I gave a keynote speech at the Washington State Coalition for the Homeless conference last month. I've posted the text of that speech, and other articles, at Gather.com -- where I'm hanging out more than here, these days.
My sister Adrienne, the Absurdist Voodoo Priestess, has made herself America's Youngest Beat Poet and created the Longest MySpace Profile Ever, a multimedia reading event that tells, among other things, the history of our family. It's a trip. Check it out at intentionallyadrienne.
And now I'm off to bed. Gardening changes nightowls into earlyworms. :)
Homeless people have long resorted to seeking shelter in tent groups, but these communities are one of the first known to be organized by a sponsoring organization (a partnership between the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement League, often referred to by the combined acronym SHARE/WHEEL), and, even more notably, are one of the first in a major U.S. city to be largely accepted by local governments. Contrary to some stereotypes regarding the homeless, many residents of Tent City are employed, mostly in temporary or day labor jobs, but have insufficient income to obtain more permanent housing.
The original Tent City and Tent City 2, both created in the late 1990s, were opposed by the City of Seattle, which claimed they were illegal. After being tolerated for some time, they were eventually forced to shut down. In March of 2002, as a result of a legal battle centered in large part around the constitutionally protected right of churches to serve the poor, city attorney Tom Carr and SHARE/WHEEL attorney Ted Hunter signed a court ordered consent decree with SHARE, allowing Tent City only on private land (by invitation) and setting standards for its operation.
Based on the consent decree Tent City 3 was created and rotates around the Metro Seattle Core. Tent City 4 was created in May of 2004 as an attempt to expand beyond the Seattle city limits. Originally slated be be housed on public land owned by King County, the encampment wound up being hosted by churches instead due to community protest. Like Tent City 3 in Seattle, Tent City 4 moves from one host to another every 60-90 days.
Tent City rules do not allow drug or alcohol use, and evicts anyone caught stealing or committing other crimes within the camp. Participant stays for Tent City 3 have been around 3 weeks on average while Tent City 4 has had stays as long as 100 days.
Tent City 4 is a homeless encampment of up to 100 people operated by the homeless residents and sponsored by 501(c)(3) organizations Seattle Housing and Resources Effort (SHARE) and Women's Housing Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL). The camp was created in May 2004 and limits itself to places of worship in eastern King County outside of Seattle. Minors are not allowed in Tent City 4, although there is a provision for emergency situations. Residents may use their own tents or community tents that are segregated by gender. Dumpsters, portable toilets, and a shower, paid for by SHARE, are provided to address sanitation concerns. In order to control access to the encampment, there is only one entry/exit to the camp that is guarded at all times.
Unlike its sister tent city in Seattle, which moves around Seattle with little to no resistance, Tent City 4's moves are often met with stiff resistance from some residents of the communities they move in to. In response to Tent City 4's movement and the resistance of its opponents, King County and many of the cities have established land use codes in an attempt to balance the desire of faith-based organizations to host the camp and the concerns of some of its neighbors over health and safety.
Clicking on the "Discussion" tab provides the curious with an illuminating glimpse into the controversy behind our Tent Cities (and the evolution of a Wikipedia article). The latest news from Redmond.
Currently
reading
:
The Book of the Night
By
Rhoda Lerman
Release date: August, 1984
My writer's group, StreetWrites, is getting active again! One of the projects I hoped would stimulate people is a group blog, and it seems to be working. Not only are people posting to Out of the Margins, they are also spinning off to set up their own blogs. Now we have:
Out of the Margins: group blog of StreetWrites, a homeless/low-income writer's collective
Galaxie is also a StreetWrites member, but he has had his MySpace here for quite awhile, so I can't claim to have inspired it.
All of this blogging seems to have gotten to Tim Harris, aka He Whom Sid Allows to Call Himself Director of Real Change. He himself has finally fallen to the blogging bug.
As long as I am mentioning blogs, you can find all of these blogs and more at my StumbleUpon blog.
Yes, it's been awhile. I've been too busy doing stuff to write about it! Here's a fun tidbit, though. A friend gave Wes and I a little pocket video camera and he's been going nuts with it. (See his new blog, Wes Runoff.) One of the things he did with it was to record my performance at the February 23rd Talent Show held by our building and a few neighbors. Here it is for your enjoyment.
This was the first time I'd done this with actual feathers: at poetry slams, you can't use props. I flubbed a couple of my own lines. It was fun for all, anyway. For a very amateur video, I'm tickled with it. :)
Here are the words as they are supposed to be:
Mother Escapes
Many years ago my mother was locked up in St. Francis Cabrini Hospital because we didn't know what else to do with manic women back then.
But Mother knew LOTS better things to do than to be locked up in a little room.
She tore her down pillow open with her teeth, blew handfuls of soft white feathers under the door, and yelled, "Fire! Fire!"
An orderly actually came and threw the door open.
Faster than a naked toddler Mother skinned under his arm, dashed down the hallway, slammed through the front doors and raced down the sidewalk;
3-o-clock in the afternoon, broad daylight, 92 pounds in a flapping hospital gown, long wiry black hair and feathers, yelling, "Fire! Fire!"
Mother told me the story herself. I was ever so proud of her. To this day
I stand a little taller when I have feathers in my hair.
A week ago, I committed to a goal of "Cleaning my room 15 minutes a day." I haven't been keeping up with this goal; I might have spent 15 minutes cleaning my room, but that was stretched out over the whole week.
In the meantime, Wes (my husband, who usually does most of the cooking and most of the cleaning, in return for other favors) got incapacitated.
Friday afternoon his scooter ran afoul of some storm debris on the sidewalk, and he took a spill. Wes hates the emergency room so much that he was going to wait until Tuesday, when he already had a doctor's appointment scheduled, to get himself checked out for serious damage. Sunday afternoon, however, his left arm hurt so much he gave in and went to the emergency room. After what he claims was "20 x-rays" they told him he had no broken bones, just "bruises, contusions, and lacerations" that only time would heal. Mostly, the doctor was just tickled pink that, at 57, Wes was getting so much exercise.
Right after he left, however, they found something they'd missed; a hairline fracture on a bone in his right arm. He had to go back the next day for a "splint" -- which looks like a lightweight cast, covering his entire forearm between his elbow and the base of his fingers.
So, with one arm in a cast and the other twanging painfully every time he moves it, Wes is delegating washing dishes, and a lot of other housework, to me for at least ten days.
Maybe that will be long enough for me to get into the habit. :)
4:25 PM - A Christmas Without Wishes
Category: Life
"We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year"
"I want to wish you a Merry Christmas I want to wish you a Merry Christmas I want to wish you a Merry Christmas From the bottom of my heart"
"Merry Christmas!" "Happy Holidays!"
I've heard it, you've heard it, increasingly over the last weeks of the year, peaking Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. If you don't send Christmas greetings to everyone in your family, all your friends, and everyone else you know, you're a Scrooge or a Grinch. I wish Merry Christmas to a lot of people myself -- although I usually stick to "Happy Holidays!" until I get an indication of whether "Merry Christmas" "Happy Hanukkah" "Blessed Solstice" or "Have a good Ramadan" is appropriate.
One morning I found myself wondering, "Why do we just wish that people have a good Christmas?"
Sure, smiling good wishes, even from a stranger, usually brighten up anyone's day. We give gifts, too. We do kind things for the poor. Whatever we can afford.
But all that wishing ... begins to sound a bit wistful.
There's been a sign up in Metro buses for the last month: "Give experiences instead of stuff." The traditional experiences of Christmas are visiting loved ones, hugging, eating, baking, drinking, caroling, partying, exchanging presents, enjoying the sight of seasonal decorations and lights, in some areas the seasonal carousel or sleigh ride or community ice skating.
Most of it's over the next day except for the leftover turkey and at least some of the toys (in my experience, the simpler and hardier ones last longer.) And the fruitcake that will not die.
How many times do you get to give someone a life-changing experience for Christmas?
Most of us would like to do that. Most of us think we can't afford to; don't know anyone with a need we are capable of filling, that would change their lives; it seems to take all the energy we have to keep our own lives on track and try to influence our children.
I think that's because there's never been as concerted a marketing campaign for "change your world" as there has been for "consume your world."
The commercial market goes after every depth of pocketbook. They'd rather have your $1700 for a new computer that will keep your daughter's educational development competitive with other six year olds, but they'll take your $1.95 for a small pack of crayons.
What if that same flexibility were applied to finding out what amount of life-change for others we can afford to make?
Passing on a compliment.
Not passing on an insult -- even when it was very, very witty.
Giving a compliment.
An encouraging word for someone trying something new and scary.
Taking time to listen.
Talking to someone you've been taught to ignore -- like a black man, or a homeless person.
Speaking up when someone makes an abusive or dangerously inaccurate comment.
Staying calm under attack, and venting your anger somewhere else.
Taking the time to research a rumor, then spreading the facts to counter it.
Returning good for evil.
Passing on information: about job openings, publication opportunities, sales, scholarships ...
Buying from companies that you know return a fair amount of their profits to their workers, in wages and benefits and workplace conditions; who don't over-pay their executives; who treat the environment responsibly. Even when that costs more.
Considering the effect of taxes and other legislation on everyone and not just on ourselves.
Voting.
Paying attention to what is happening around your neighbor's house while they're away.
Shouting loudly when you see someone being attacked. Reporting a crime or assault in progress. Testifying as a witness. Doing jury duty.
Speaking up for someone whose character is being insulted.
Getting involved in your local neighborhood association or community council and working to make sure the needs of everyone in the community are addressed -- not just those of folks with the most money and the leisure time to play politics.
Getting toxic spills and other pollution in poor neighborhoods cleaned up.
Tutoring a child.
Giving accurate directions when a stranger asks for them.
Any one of those things might change a life. You don't always know. One effect is certain, though, of doing one or more of them.
It cuts down a lot on the wistfulness of wishing a Merry Christmas.
Years ago, we had a scandal right here in River City... I mean, Seattle. The City Council gave housing-development money, money from HUD (the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development), to Nordstroms, to build the parking garage of its new flagship building in downtown. The rationale was that the new development would "revitalize the downtown core," leading to more business income, therefore more tax income, therefore, eventually, more housing. Quite a lot of people were unimpressed by this logic. There had been talk of the Mayor at the time, Norm Rice, being given a post in HUD after his term as Mayor was up. That appointment evaporated in the heat of the controversy.
The City Attorney of the time, Mark Sidran, chose not to investigate whether any part of the transaction was illegal. The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission did -- resulting in a memorable statement that "the City Council did violate several local, state, and federal laws, but they did not violate their Code of Ethics."
I was deeply ashamed to live in a city where breaking the law was not against the City Council's Code of Ethics. I was not the only one -- in the next Council election, several outspoken critics of the parking garage deal were voted in, and several outspoken defenders of it were voted out.
I have never since seen a statement as breathtaking, until this week. A House ethics committee panel reported Friday that they found a "significant number of instances where members, officers or employees failed to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight"; that a number of House members and key staffers had the opportunity to investigate the "inappropriate e-mails from a middle-aged member of Congress to a 16-year-old boy one month removed from the House page program," but failed to do so -- and that none of this violated any congressional rules!
The Congresscritters still don't get it; neither the Republicans or Democrats do. American moms & dads care a lot about young people being protected from sexual exploitation, and whatever the details of it, that is what Mark Foley's behavior was -- sexual exploitation of teenagers. That Democrats might have known what was going on and done nothing is no big deal to Republican voters -- they don't expect Democrats to act honorably. They do expect Republican elected officials to protect children (and youths) and uphold morality -- that's the core message the GOP has campaigned on for lo these many years!
Republican moms & dads also place a high priority on personal responsibility -- another thing that the GOP talks about a great deal. They saw Republican leadership in the House disowning responsibility as fast as they could, pointing fingers every which way away from them, and it's still happening.
The GOP may not see a connection between growing disillusionment with the war and the economy, a midwest backlash against Bush's policies on the environment, and the Mark Foley coverup. The Mark Foley coverup, I believe, was the crack in the dike that opened the floodgates. The GOP image of The Defender of Morals & Family has toppled, and they will not get it back up without a lot of hard work.
A good first step would be to make it against congressional rules not to apply due diligence in protecting House pages from sexual exploitation. Voters -- Democrat & Republican -- are ashamed to have a Congress that does not regard irresponsibility as against its rules.
Anyone who actively works on a personal relationship to Divinity has a constant challenge; we need an image to relate to, without limiting God to our image.
I can locate a potato without knowing the exact taxonomy of the vegetable, or being able to draw the Ideal Potato. I love my Wes, without pretending to myself that I could ever define him or fully describe him; I could never draw a picture remotely like him, but I can pick him out of any crowd. Any being, force, or object that you bring to mind, I will bet virtual chocolate that your understanding of it has changed over the years and that you still have more to learn about it; and that you have been able to relate in some way to it all along. You played under the sun and enjoyed it and benefited from it for a long time before you learned about solar fusion and the history of stars.
I think a lot about theology, because it is fun, not because I think it is important. I think what is important is how we relate to God, how we live with God, not how we think about God. Some people relate best to an image of a Father, some relate best to an image of a Mother, some relate best to an image of a Great Bear. Intellectually, I conceive of God as having the same relationship to the Universe as I have with my body; God is the "I AM" of the universe, the universe is the body of God. Intellectually, I consider Person and Gender to be limiting concepts, inappropriate for describing God, who is way too big and complex for those categories. When I am thinking out a problem, I find this imagery to be helpful.
But the God I pray to in my heart, the God I go to with joys, sorrows, and fears, bears little relationship to the God of my intellect. I have seen the same thing in other Christians; the God that a person relates to emotionally is little like the God we formally believe in and describe. I think that pagans are a little more integrated between emotion and intellect; what they emotionally relate to and intellectually describe seem closer to each other. But monotheism, if you really think it out, conceives of a God that is really beyond human capability to actually conceive of. We have mentally bitten off more than we can mentally chew. One God of all the Universe, One God that knows and loves all things, all beings, at all times, is way too big for any few ounces of gray matter to hold.
A Catholic priest told me that in seminary, they were told, "If you think you understand God, you have wandered into heresy."
Whatever imagery works to give you the context in which to live lovingly, I consider the spirit to be more important than the form. "God is Love, and whoever knows Love, knows God."
KUOW: Radio Intersection just broadcast an interview with me, about WHEEL homeless women's group and the Women In Black vigils we do whenever someone homeless dies outside or by violence in King County. The interview is also available online. It's a serious interview -- and they've accompanied it with the silliest set of pictures of me available on the web!
11:42 PM - Changing the "culture of corruption" will require more than your vote on Tuesday
Category: News and Politics
I am more interested than ever before in the Congressional races in other districts. Changing the balance of power in the House and the Senate will be a beginning to cleaning up the abuses of power by an unchecked Republican party.
The pattern that the Republicans followed, however, was only the pattern followed by Democrats before them, when Democrats had been ensconced in an uncontestable majority for too long.
Every human being is morally responsible for our own actions. We can also make it easier for others to act ethically, or make it easier for them to act unethically. There are some people who act with equal honor whether anyone is watching or not. The majority will be more likely to act honorably when temptations are minimal and they are under constant scrutiny; when temptations are constant and scrutiny is infrequent, people are far more likely to act unethically.
The founders of our American system of government did their damndest to insure that everyone would be under oversight from someone, would have some competition waiting to pounce on every mistake, would have to share power with others that they had to negotiate with. In the late 18th century in which they operated, public literacy and the profusion of newspapers and pamphletting created an atmosphere of lively public scrutiny that they hoped to preserve with the Constitutional protections on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.
The American public media, however, became less and less "public" with the growth of media empires. Public literacy declined, anti-intellectualism rose, it became a matter of pride to say that one was "not interested in politics." This may have been due to the rise of television and movies and the fall-off in reading, as argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death; it may have been because we didn't take our educational system seriously and let it become weak; it may have been because the larger a media empire, or any corporation, gets, the less attention it gives to the interests of actual consumers. ("You'll take what we give you, and like it!") All of these were factors, and more; and each factor affected the others, in a feedback cycle.
What happened to public debate when the media came under increasing corporate control was increasing sensationalism, increasing corruption, and decreasing relevancy to the realities of life for most Americans. This is the same thing that happened to political debate when the Democratic Party was in uncontested control of Washington DC. They became arrogant, corrupt, and out of touch with Americans, leading to the Republican Revolt of 1994.
After 1994, the power of the Republic Party grew until they, in turn, had uncontesed control of Washington DC -- the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch, and K Street. And, in their turn, they became arrogant, corrupt, and out of touch with Americans -- leading to the Democratic Revolt of 2006.
Are we going to Throw the Rascals Out and then sit back and wait for the next cycle of the same thing? Or are we going to revive the spirit of "government by the people" and tell both parties that they can no longer take us for granted? That we will be on their backs, watching their every step, holding their feet to the fire -- whether they are of "our party" or "the other one"? Are we going to start having a real public conversation about issues, instead of a shouting match of sound bites? Are we going to start doing problem-solving instead of ideology-slinging? Are we going to put the interests of American citizens above the interests of America's political parties?
Nobody else can do that for us. It will only happen if we do it.
7:35 PM - Some Republicans still don't know why Mark Foley doomed them
Category: News and Politics
I have seen several comments in conservative blogs that liberals are mistaken in expecting conservative voters to be upset with Republican leadership over the Foley scandals. Mark Foley's was a "personal sin," they say, not a "group sin."
It seems to me that those writers are seriously misjudging conservsative voters, missing not only that many of them are upset with the Republican House leadership, but what they are upset about.
Children were put at risk, and the people who should have been protecting those children seem to have been far more concerned over protecting their public image and political power. That is why Mark Foley's "personal sin" has shaken Republican poll figures among conservative voters harder than Abramoff revelations, Iraq setbacks, or economic woes ever did -- and unless Republican leaders recognize that, and begin acting as responsible adults in the eyes of conservative parents, they will continue to see their political futures plummet.
Hint, folks: "It's all somebody else's fault!" doesn't impress most conservative parents as "taking responsibility."
As someone who wants to see an end to overweening Republican power, I should be glad that the Republican leadership seems determined to continue handling any scandal by denying it as long as possible and then blaming someone else for it. As someone who does not want to see overweening Democratic power, also, I would be glad to see at least some Republicans beigin to act like grownups.
Abuses of power are not, after all, rooted in any one ideology. Abuses of power result from having unchecked power, with no oversight or accountability. If we put Democrats in that position, we will see the same abuses as we have seen from Republicans in that position.
If we want Congress to police itself, we have to restore a balance of power in which they can call each other to account (without cries of "blatant partisan politicking," aka The Tom Delay Defense). Ultimately, if Americans want to protect our children better, we have to keep a closer eye on our Congressmen (and Congresswomen).
Seattle, Washington: SHARE/WHEEL, homeless and formerly homeless people organizing to help each other, manage thirteen indoor shelters and two Tent Cities. The Tent Cities are numbered historically: the ones currently in operation are Tent City 3, which moves around the Seattle area, and Tent City 4, which moves around the Eastside.
As of today, October 7, Tent City 3 is at St. George's Episcopal Church in Lake City (north Seattle) where it moved September 29.
The City of Seattle has a page in its "Crisis Clinic / Community Resources" section on Tent City 3. Update lags a little, but not so much that you will be completely lost. For instance, it lists the current location of Tent City 3 as Haller Lake United Methodist Chuch "until September 29," and the "next" location as St. George's Episcopal Church.
I reported in July that the City of Woodinville's attempt to evict Tent City from the grounds of the Northshore United Church had failed in court. I did not mention that, since then, the City of Woodinville had continued to file citations on Tent City's one lone paid staff support person, Scott Morrow, for a total of 28 "civil infractions," like parking his car beside Tent City, which they still do not feel should exist.
On Friday, Judge David A. Steiner of Northeast District Court in Redmond ruled the city was "without authority" to issue the citations. "The intent of the commissioner of the Court of Appeals was to stay everything," said Steiner, and dismissed all infractions against Morrow.
A lawsuit over Tent City remains in the Court of Appeals. No trial date has been set. The camp is currently at Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church on Woodinville-Duvall Road and will be relocating again on November 11.
You can read the key findings of the controversial NIE Report on the Redstate blog , along with a Bush-defense analysis of it. I am going to assume that if you are reading this blog, you already know the Bush-critic take on it.
The key pivot-point where Left and Right readings of the NIE report diverge is this pair of findings:
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.
Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
To the Right (including Redstate) the obvious implication of this is that we must stay in Iraq until Iraq is at peace; anything else will guarantee increased risk to Americans from terrorists everywhere.
To others -- not just the Far Left, but the majority of Americans, including many moderate Republicans -- the obvious meaning is that the invasion of Iraq radicalized a new generation of terrorists and continues to generate them. We have to create a perception that the jihadists have lost in Iraq, but to continue military efforts to kill all jihadists presently in Iraq may not be the most practical way to do that. Our military approach is only making the problem worse.
There is background to this. The very first of the findings listed is
United States-led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qa'ida and disrupted its operations
Redstate may read this as "military efforts against al-Qa'ida are succeeding, keep them up" but that is not what it says. "Counterterrorism" efforts are such things as:
Tracking terrorist funding and cutting it off;
Tracking and cutting terrorist access to weapons;
Counter-recruitment efforts, aiding local economies and supporting moderate Muslims who oppose terrorism;
These are the useful methods of counterterrorism; methods that are not always supported by military attacks, and can often be hindered by them.
It was a counter-terrorist plan that George Tenet presented immediately after 9/11, and that was nixed in favor of a war plan, by people who had no personal experience in either intelligence activities or in war. The NIE report says that the counterterrorism activities we have continued to pursue are the ones having constructive results; the war activities we have pursued have been counter-productive.
This is fundamental to the disconnect in the public discussion of anti-terrorism. The intelligence community has been warning about the growing threat of terrorism, and urging action against it, for thirty years. Military strategists, like John Boyd, have been saying for thirty years that we have to stop preparing for 18th century wars and start addressing 21st century dangers -- which are NOT national armies, but transnational, distributed terrorist networks. And for thirty years, our political leaders -- Democrat AND Republican -- have remained obsessed with building a military that can fight 18th century war with 21st century technology. Having built a military to fight nation-versus-nation wars, that is the only kind of war they can see to fight. When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you have put more than half of your country's resources into building the hammer, you have a lot invested in finding nails.
It is not true that all those who want our troops withdrawn from Iraq have no positive alternatives to propose. Most of those who want U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq want the U.S. to increase actual counterterrorism efforts instead. The reason that the radical, partisan right cannot hear these proposals is that they cannot perceive the existence of anything except hammers and nails.
Coffeehouse 
Living is a political act.
content
Not only are people posting to 
