Submitted by David Anderson.
At first it seemed the normal console containing a computer keyboard.
However, it was hooked into a voice synthesizer that could comprehend over ten thousand verbal commands, make the appropriate reply, do your research, and actually carry on a conversation.
“Sound effects, imitate animals, sing – though not too well – and pronounce ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’, even if not programmed to its exact definition, and say it backwards.”
Such is the fictional creation of New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler, his computer-human concoction appearing throughout his innumerable tales of intrigue, murder, revenge and world conquest; his heroes in search of treasures lost and sometimes found from the highest of mountainous ravines to the caverns of the deepest sea bottoms.
“The voice was a little weird, sort of like Hal, the giant computer in the movie 2001.”
Her name, as this is the female version of Hal?
“Hope.”
“Hope?”
“Yeah,” said her designer. “We hope she’ll come up with the right answers.” (“Cyclops,” p.67).
Coming up with the wrong answers, but hoping it works, is the Seattle City Council as it concerns itself with the ever-growing homeless population.
“As I’ve said a million times,” said Dori Monson, afternoon talk show host for KIRO Radio in Seattle, “there is no correlation between spending money and reducing homelessness. We spend more per capita on homelessness (over a billion dollars on homelessness in Seattle and King County over the past 10 years) than any other city in the country, and the problem has only gotten dramatically worse – because of our politicians.
“The fact of the matter is — and nobody seems willing to acknowledge this truth — that the majority of the people on the streets have sadly decided that that is their lifestyle of choice. When they swept that homeless camp a few months ago, nearly all of them denied the offers of assistance from law enforcement.
“As long as we enable and tolerate that as a city, as a region, then all of the addicts around the country are going to say, ‘Let’s go to Seattle — they’ll let us live in tents and shoot up.’ You can spend an infinite amount of money, and it is not going to solve that truth.”
Monson is right on the money when he says money won’t solve homelessness.
Work will. It’s a better way.
Even menial tasks, like picking fruit, or picking up litter.
According to the Tacoma News Tribune, July 27, 2018, Washington farmers are said to provide housing and in some cases are offering as much as $20-plus-an-hour to bring in the harvest.
The homeless could do that.
The Department of Ecology hires teens at $11.50 per hour to pick up roadside litter throughout the state of Washington each summer.
The homeless could do that.
Albuquerque has a program that hires the homeless to pick up litter. They call it “There’s A Better Way.”
Is it?
“Over 6,700 people have been connected to services they may not have known about previously; 426 day jobs have been offered; 92 city blocks have been cleaned with over 41,000 pounds of trash and debris cleared.”
Lakewood, Washington, together with Pierce County, as a result of having researched – and Lakewood’s Mayor Don Anderson actually even having participated in – Albuquerque’s program, “is implementing the H.E.L.P. (Homeless Empowerment Work Program) pilot as part of the 2018 budget, modeled after the Albuquerque program.”
It’s a model that works because its focus is work.
We used to have a saying where I went to school, actually three sayings, oft repeated by the President to the student body. If we wanted to graduate, we best take to heart the following.
He would say, especially when Christmas Break was over, and the next break was nowhere in sight: “Work through your moods.”
And, “Don’t ever sit at your study desk in anything but a straight-backed chair.”
And, “Plan your work and work your plan.”
Seattle City Council’s hope in its homeless plan doesn’t work because it doesn’t put the homeless to work.
As my dad used to say: ‘spit in one hand, and hope in the other and see which fills up first.’
Ditto the wisdom of Solomon: “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity.”
Work works.
Dori Monson, eh? Guy who likely never had to worry about whether he would eat at all on any given day. University educated. Net worth of around 2 MILLION now. Guy who enjoys pharmacological cocktails and has had mental breakdowns? Really?
If Washington State farmers really provide housing and $20.00 per hour, where are the lines of Caucasians out there hoping to be hired? And now, I read in the news that American farmers who grow Soybeans and other crops are still waiting for news of governmental assistance, in light of the trade tariffs on China and other nations.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. First tackle the housing issue. Browse through the papers, or Craigslist at rental costs for apartments or even a room in a shared house. My husband and I bought our small home 30 and some odd years ago. Our mortgage payments are around $895.00 for a very small 2 bedroom ( very small bedrooms ) and one full ( and very small ) bath.
I hear senior citizens complaining about how their kids have moved back in with them. Sometimes bringing the grand kids with them. It’s either that, or the family lives in their car. The problem is the very inflated costs of housing. As property taxes rise, landlords are forced to increase their rents. And in many cases, their properties aren’t worth the sky high rent they’re asking.
Most employers have certain requirements for potential employees.
1. A stable residential address.
2. A phone.
3. Reliable transportation. Which doesn’t mean the public transportation on a bus, or a bicycle. It means a vehicle, which also means additional costs for fuel, maintenance, and tabs, licensing and insurance.
The homeless lack a stable residential address. Many lack phones. Many lack reliable transportation. They also lack hygiene facilities, which would assist them in finding work, if they showed up in clean clothing and had showered and shaved.
People speak of giving them a feeling of self respect or self worth by putting them to work picking up stinking garbage. Hard to have a feeling of self respect or self worth if you haven’t showered in a month or more, and your clothing is filthy because you can’t afford a laundromat. Pretty hard to find the energy to even go looking for work, when you haven’t had a decent meal in a while.
I believe you’ve mentioned ( aside from Washington State Farmers and your belief that they offer housing and $20.00 per hour ) that the Temp Employment agencies have offered homeless people work. Have you looked into the contracts a potential temp worker signs? The agency takes a huge chunk out of whatever the individual earns, and these people aren’t going to earn much by picking up garbage. Certainly not enough for a small studio apt., and not many people who advertise a room for rent in a shared house is going to accept someone who’s been homeless.
Keep enabling them with your excuses, Janice.
You’ve just exemplified what I was talking about, Marty. Thanks. Do you understand how many among the homeless are elderly, disabled, and how many are military veterans? Do you understand how many among them are actually working, but living in cars or tents if they’re lucky enough to have them, because they don’t earn enough to meet financial requirements for rentals?
My so called ” excuses ” stand. They enable nothing, and nobody. They are just my opinion, and factual, especially pertaining to the requirements most employers have for potential employees.
Janice, how many of the homeless are alcoholics and drug addicts? And how many became homeless due to their personal choices? So now we should house and feed them, and ask for nothing in return, like working? Contrary to what you wrote, the homeless are not all elderly, disabled and military veterans.
You say it so well Mr. Anderson. Thank you for stating the facts so well. We are “inviting” these individuals to camp in our cities and neighborhoods. Why do we not expect these individuals to “seek higher ground” and contribute to society?
Many do try very hard, Sharlene. Google up the working homeless. You might be surprised how many people are working one or more jobs and don’t earn enough to meet financial requirements for rentals.
I’ve rarely encountered anyone who has actually invited homeless individuals to camp in cities or neighborhoods. Most seem to want them rounded up and shipped elsewhere. That’s what happens in Hoquium. Every morning their police round up homeless people, and put them on a transit bus headed for Aberdeen.
Aberdeen tries to round them back up toward evening, and send them back to Hoquium.
I’ve encountered families sleeping in cars in parking lots. I’ve spoken with many. One elderly woman was sleeping in her car because she’d recently been widowed, and her husband had left many debts, and she was evicted from her home. She told me, as many have, that they’ve tried very hard to find work, but since they were living in cars and didn’t have a home address as many employers require, or a phone, and since she was in her 70s, who was going to hire her?
I find myself wondering, how many who dismiss and demean these people take themselves to church every Sunday, take a seat on a pew and pretend to worship a deceased man who was also homeless, and dependent upon the charity of strangers?
Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats?
Janice – Thank you.
Thank you, Janice.
And may we please have a word about the mentally ill? All the old sayings don’t have a fix for that. And how, pray tell, is having a meaningful discussion of the complexities of this issue “enable them”?
Some of our population seriously need to grow a heart.
Perhaps our lawmakers could put together a workable plan for those on the skids. Something like the WPA of our depression era?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
David, I am glad to see that Janice is correcting your continuing diatribe on the glories of work as a solution for the problem of homelessness. My attempts last month obviously didn’t achieve much. In the lectionary reading for last Sunday Paul advised that thieves should stop thieving and work with their hands so that there would be aid for the needy. Today that could be rephrased as the wealthy should stop amassing personal wealth so there would be plenty for all. But it is hard to find employers who will do that.
You write, “I am glad to see that Janice is correcting your continuing diatribe on the glories of work as a solution for the problem of homelessness.”
And Janice writes, “I find myself wondering, how many who dismiss and demean these people take themselves to church every Sunday, take a seat on a pew and pretend to worship a deceased man . . . .”
Given you are one of those who “take themselves to church every Sunday,” as you cited a lectionary reading for last service, do you “worship a deceased man”?
This argument of Gordon’s, you support?
David, Again you seem adept at ducking the issues at hand. Janice made many factually accurate statements about the homeless and poverty showing her, greater than your and probably my, understanding of this problem. As to the side question as to my beliefs, I do not worship a deceased man, neither do I worship the acquiring and retention of money, as so many seem to do. What do you worship? Shalom, Sid
My point in helping you connect the dots is that (a) you seem enthralled by Gordon’s arguments; but (b) Gordon takes a swipe at religion as if to somehow bolster her position which, of course, it does not.
The “deceased man” to which she refers may be in fact a reference to the indisputable central tenant of the Christian faith, that being the resurrection.
That Gordon would go there, and even further compare this individual to those homeless – as if He also were, which she claims but which He was not, He had a home, and was on a mission trip here, and had a purpose – these are all assets He had and the homeless do not: home, purpose and mission.
Given Gordon believes this is a fair evidence for her position in this debate undermines much, if not all, of any value she might have hoped to convey.
David, The Gospel of Luke seems to agree with Janice when he has Jesus say, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The central teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God full of compassion and justice. A domination economic system that produced the poor and then “ground their bones” was not justice and is repeatedly denounced in both Testaments. Of all the Apostles, Peter is the only one that seemed to have a house, mentioned when Jesus healed his mother-in-law of a fever. Being Biblically correct doesn’t undermine her much to me. But, if having one wrong idea destroys the value of everything else then nobody has value for no one is perfect. Shalom, Sid
“if having one wrong idea destroys the value of everything else then nobody has value for no one is perfect. ”
That’s what you call leaving the deceased deceased? This one “people take themselves to church on Sunday to worship”? Deceased? “One wrong idea”?
Sounds like a fairly significant doctrinal error if you ask me.
You lost me on this one.
Janice Gordon: “I find myself wondering, how many who dismiss and demean these people take themselves to church every Sunday, take a seat on a pew and pretend to worship a deceased man who was also homeless, and dependent upon the charity of strangers?”
Question: Who is the “deceased man” who “people take themselves to church every Sunday, take a seat on a pew and pretend to worship”?
If we assume this individual would be Jesus, He is not deceased.
We now have less a homeless issue than a doctrinal issue and therefore I am not ducking the matter of how best to treat the homeless when there is something far more important at stake, not, as you say, “a side issue” or “one wrong idea.”
Discounting the Resurrection is a “wrong idea”?
Gordon wants to make this a plank in her homelessness platform. Religion. And a dead leader at that.
David, Jesus did die. The Resurrection was not about bringing a dead body back to life. The answer to homelessness is to end the economic domination system that caused the homelessness. Your work proposal is a strategy of the oppression system to keep the poor from getting out of being poor.
If the Resurrection was not about bringing a dead body back to life, what was it about?
Bodily resuscitation was the concept of Resurrection that was taught to me from about age 10 on. (beginning 75 years ago) And for most of the time I had vague , nagging questions about it. Since 2000 I have been reading John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Paul Tillich, John Dominic Crossan and others. And I have come to understand the Spiritual nature of the resurrection. Paul’s writing that we have two bodies a material one and a Spiritual one begins to make sense. Paul goes on to say that the mortal body cannot put on immortality. Duh. Spong’s book Eternal Life: A New Vision and Borg’s, Jesus: A New Vision cover this much better I can begin to do. Borg’s new book Awe and Wonder How to be a Christian in the 21st century provides great understanding of what had been called the new theology. Shalom, Sid