MN Homeless Confront Governor Nonviolently--on YouTube!

Taking their struggle to YouTube, Twin Cities' homeless are telling Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty what they think about recent health care cuts. Pawlenty's veto ended the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program during the last legislative session. Coverage that protects homeless Minnesotans will stop in March 2010.

Hoping to catch the governor's attention, homeless people are telling their stories to camera crews and posting them on YouTube. Josh Lang, Human Rights Program Director at St. Stephen's, says the project is "a way to get that voice out that isn't getting out in any other way."

"People on anti-psychotic meds who are trying to figure out, 'Well do I wean myself off? How do I do that?' People with diabetes [who need to take] insulin. These [are] real life or death issues. They're scared." Lang told a local reporter. "People aren't going to stop getting sick when their health care runs out. They're not going to stop getting injured on the streets, they're not going to stop having mental health issues."

Michael Harristhal, Vice President of Public Policy and Strategy at Hennepin County Medical Center, the facility that handles the most patients on GAMC in the state, is concerned that ending the GAMC program will drive up costs for everyone. "[The GAMC funding cut] was conceived as a way to save costs but unless we come up with a better solution it actually could result in higher costs to the system," he stated.

Patients without health care often must delay treatment and end up in the emergency room, a more costly treatment option.

St. Stephen's Human Services hopes to record 1,000 YouTube interviews for Governor Pawlenty. By actually showing the people left in the lurch without health care, they hope the impact will go beyond that of a paper petition.

Over 30,000 Minnesotans are currently covered by GAMC. Pawlenty has said that when it ends, other programs should cover them. But opponents say different programs have higher costs and that those programs will need more money to cover new patients.
For the entire collection of YouTube videos CLICK HERE.
Here's a compilation video featuring a few of the voices edited together in one video montage:

MANKIND IS NO ISLAND

Yes. It is cold here,
Bitterly cold in Northwest Arkansas...
Soon, however, it will quickly warm...
In a few days the temperature will increase,
I'd prefer it that way, warm;
Not a blazing heat, but more like 75 degrees.

I wonder what temperature the homeless prefer?

"Mankind is no Island" was the winning "film" of Tropfest NY 2008! Every frame was shot by a cellphone video camera. Music by John Roy. Directed by Jason Van Genderen.

To see more short films visit SHORT SUBJECT...

Social Justice Quiz 2008, continued

Authored by Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Previous questions are found on The Peace Tree: #1-7 on Sunday, September 14. #8-12 on Sunday, September 21.
Click below for the answers to (and documentation of) today's segment of the quiz.

13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?

14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?

15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?

16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?

Expand the post +/-

13. 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people are not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars, or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters on any given night.
2007 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Annual Homeless Report to Congress, page iii and 23.
The population of San Francisco is about 739,000.

14. HUD reports nearly 1 in 4 people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger.
Page iv – 2007 HUD Annual Homeless Report to Congress.

15. Over 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population is veterans.
Page 32, 2007 HUD Homeless Report.
This is about the same population as Green Bay. Wisconsin.

16. Ten times. China's military budget is $65 billion. The US military budget is nearly 10 times larger than the second leading military spender.
GlobalSecurity.org

Angels Among Us....

This post was originally written in March 2006 and posted on Watergate Summer, I was living in the heart of downtown Cleveland with my son in an urban loft that we rented. ( Months later after I wrote this, it would be foreclosed and I would be scrambling in the snow and ice to find a place to live).While living downtown I took photos of the homeless, listened to their stories and brought them sandwiches and water.They were my neighbors.While living downtown Mr.Bush would come to town and whiz through in his motorcades and the town would be sectioned off so he could travel fast and not have to see the pain down in the city. This week a study was released by Forbes Magazine, and it stated that Cleveland was at the top of the list for Dying Cities. And in the past two years the Downtown region has become more desolate and desperate. More than half of the Downtown Homeless here (approximately 10,000 of the 5.1 Million in this Country) are VETS from either the Gulf War or Iraq. They have PTSD, and yes, it is obvious. I read Poetryman's posts on Iraq and realized how the two problems are so interwoven, the War, it's Broken Shredded Victims coming home to Broken Cities that cannot care for them.
**********************************
March 2006
Dear Mr.Bush,
You came to Cleveland this week to give a speech at the City Club to the Elite and Well healed. No GOP Dignitaries arrived at the airport , or even introduced you at your Luncheon. You proceeded to drive the podium once again intoxicated with yourself. But you took a Intricate Route to your event so you would not have to see the Shredded Streets or the People of the Broken Hearted Inner City. You didn't take the time to see the Real People of Cleveland. The Real People were not standing with your handful of supporters. The Homeless and Disenfranchised of this City should not be blurred as you speed by in your motorcade. They have names and faces and stories. And your "Leadership" is killing them. In my mind they are not Invisible, they are Angels among us, teaching us what we need to Embrace and Remember, and hold dear as part of We The People.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
IRIS:
I live in the heart of Downtown Cleveland. My Son wanted Urban, he wanted Gritty, he wanted to live in the Old Section of the City. We have lived here almost a year it as comfortable as old shoes now. Yet there are parts of it that still tug at my heart. Last summer I decided that I wanted to make a documentary about the Homeless Here. Supposedly there are 10,000 that live in downtown Cleveland, and maybe as many as 3000 of that Downtown Number are Homeless. Last summer I met a fair number of Homeless because I walk my dog 5 times a day. ( Earlier I wrote a post about Robert a homeless VET). But over time I have realized not all of them want to be filmed, if I can get them to talk and make eye contact, it is a gift. Over time I take the time to learn their stories.

I met Iris last summer. I met her because she was taping her glasses together. She is Jamacian and in her 50's. She has training as a nursing assistant. She is a mother and a grandmother. She has been on the streets since last June. She left an abusive drinking husband, " Very bad Man". She talks about him quietly, and with such dignity. She had to leave, she said he would kill her if she stayed. I have hardly seen her during the winter. But I saw her about a week ago, as the crocuses appeared. She sits on a bench in front of the University in the evenings. We spoke and she admitted that she is going to take the bus and go find her sister in Florida.. ( Since I have been here I have ended up giving money to people to leave, take a Bus Somewhere, Anywhere.)

I asked her is she had a place to go at nights. " I go where I can be safe. One of these nights I may join the Angels".
She states it so factually, there is not emotion , no tears.

So Mr.Bush I have to ask, why should this fine woman be on the Streets? Why should she suffer? Do you care that she is one of the Grate People that might freeze to death? When you left downtown Cleveland did you see people staking out the Grates downtown with their blankets and bags?

METAL MEN:
Mr.Bush,Did you see the Metal Men with their grocery carts driving about the city, peeling copper plating and spouts off buildings? Did you see their clothes, rags held together with rope and duct tape? Did you see their raw hands and bloody knuckles. Do you understand the desperation that makes them search dumpsters for Metal ?

JAMES & DENISE:
The Night you came I saw James and Denise in Front of the closest Pizza parlor. I have given them money , when I have it.
I feel guilty getting my small pizza on Fridays in front of them. I always feel guilty getting such a luxorious item in front of them. So I give them some dollars and I always get them muffins and drinks if I see them on my way in to pick up the Pizza.
They have been together for a long time. Denise has MS, and James is a VET with PTSD. I give them some money, but I can't give them a Home, or Shelter, and I can't get them off the Street. And it tugs at my heart that my street is FULL of Empty Buildings and yet people are sleeping on benches and under bushes and on the Grates.

(I have wondered if Mr.Bush thinks that they are only in Certain Cities, he should look out his window, and he would see they are everywhere, even by the White house.)

So Mr.Bush, do you have a conscience? Because you gave your delusional speech, but I know that you don't Know We The People.And I know that they are the Invisible and I worry that they are as Iris said Merely Angels Among us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*****************************************
Maybe we need to remind Mr.Bush that This is Still Written on the Placard, a Poem by Emma Lazurus on Ellis Island that 13 Million people read as they arrived to these shores.To this day when we look at Lady Liberty, the Beautiful Statue that she is, these are the Words We All hear....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Give us your Tired,
Your Poor, Huddled masses,
Yearning to breathe free.
The Wretched refuse teaming to your shore,
Send these the Homeless,
The Tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my Lamp beside the Golden Door."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Natalie Merchant sings "Break Your Heart"

WE THE PEOPLE....

WE THE PEOPLE...
These people are OUR people..there are US....and yet we have over 5.1 Million Homeless in this country..OUR Country. this is just so wrong.....it is Our Greatest Shame....


The Video was a collaboration with Mandt of Agitdiaries, it was a wonderful collaboration....the Photos are from all over, NY, SF, DC,LA, Portland, Seattle, and yes, Cleveland. The Song is called "TearDrop" by Massive Attack, written by Liz Frazer.

And We Stand Still

And we stand still,
Seemingly unmoved by it all.
And we stand still,
Force the broken rubble together,
To the crimson clay and gray maggots we leave our breathing,
Feet stuck down in the red earth.

Do we know what it is that we have done?
Forgive me... We know not...

Writhing limbs beneath the ground
Unmoved of the dulled shanking sorrow
Broken by the distant flow of murder
Dejected of all the slighted affections
Replaced by a programmable worry
Struck anesthetized of bone-shrieking pain
Vanished by the good God damned dash
Pushed back to the very dread filled end
Trampled flat by the gush of skin
Stopped short of inhaling lethal shame
Turned off from what’s not the same
Blinded by the inundation of labor
Wrought immobile by the last quaver
Succumbed to hunger and greed
Paled of piercing a blood-red deed

Do we know what it is that we have done?
Forgive me... We know not...

O the flesh and bone and blood, and blood and blood-
Murderous days and nights
Of the world’s child
By our conscious monstrousness!
Again and again, without moving,
Planted there in the earth!
We are living and breathing
Yet we might as well die away,
Pass on down, end, vanish, fade...

Who could possibly want what we have;
Freedom with feet wedged beneath the ground,
God without a miserable mince of goodness,
Equality with white-faced conditions?
Hope is a four letter word.
Writhing limbs beneath the ground.
What? What? What? Goddamnit! What?

We’re not alive, at least not our senses; reality.
Why not place our bodies entirely under
If we’re just going to stand so unhappily silent?
Surely we’ve nothing worth continuing for,
Surely we’d be better off if we sunk complete,
Better than remaining red-faced, horrifyingly immobile
With no weight to bear from such empty spirits...