Speech To Be made in Philadelphia During the Democratic National Convention
(At events organized by
activists and advocates)
I, Eric Sheptock, will
be in Philadelphia, PA during the week of the Democratic national
Convention. I've been asked to speak about homelessness. Though I
tend to speak off the cuff, here are some thoughts that I'll convey
at organized events and elsewhere while in our nation's first
capital:
The Black Panther Party which
celebrates its 50th anniversary this October was begun in
response to police brutality in Oakland, CA in 1966. They created
armed resistance to a corrupt police force; but, like Hamas,
Hezbollah and Fatah, they transitioned into affording social services
to the poor – namely school breakfast to Black children. They also
began to teach people about the negative effects of capitalism and
racial inequality. In short, they were stopped dead in their tracks
by J. Edgar Hoover whose most effective tactic was having the feds
to offer school meals without the ideology. The effects of
discouraging the poor from doing any critical thinking still linger a
half century later. That's why some of us make it a point to
participate in social theory study groups and/or to encourage those
who are angered by the current state of America and its treatment of
the non-wealthy to do so themselves (or at least to think critically
– not just emotionally – about various atrocities being
perpetrated upon the poor in 2016).
Politicians who control the big guns,
candidates who want to control the big guns and those who choose to
ignore the fact that unarmed people who were marching across a
bridge or complying with police orders were still hurt and killed by
police are now telling us to remain calm and peaceful. Let's
add in the fact that slavery was ended with a war. Then
those who could no longer enslave Blacks resorted to Jim Crow Law.
Immediately after that, Nixon began mass incarceration in 1972 only
to resign a few years later in an effort not to end up in prison
alongside the Blacks who were there thanks to his policies. While I'm
not suggesting that Blacks today resort to violence, I AM juxtaposing
what I believe are some of the most pertinent facts when discussing
the plight of the nation's poor (most of whom are actually White).
1 – One of the worst and most overt
forms of systemic oppression that has been perpetrated by the wealthy
and influential in this country was only ended with violence – the
Civil War (an oxymoron like “jumbo shrimp”, I might add).
2 – Remaining non-violent in the face
of police brutality, though it might have prevented further
casualties, has neither guaranteed that an encounter with police
would not lead to death nor guaranteed that the issues being raised
by the poor would be fully and adequately addressed.
3 – What powerful people fear the
most is a well-educated base of poor and oppressed people who have a
viable social theory, suitable critical thinking skills and an
ability to put forth their demands with a concerted effort.
Now, as a
preacher might say, “Let us prey.....on that fear”.
Here we are today confronting the same
issues that the BPP was confronting in 1966 -- more than two years
before my birth, two years after the death of Medgar Evers and a year
and a half before the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
king, Jr. We're gathered in the shadow of the Democratic National
Convention which was held in Charleston, SC in 2012 where homeless
people were pushed out of extended-stay hotels in order to
accommodate the convention crowd and so that hoteliers could gouge
prices. However, it stands to reason that most or all of those
gathered here today – including Yours Truly – are from a
third party, of which there are many. Go figure. We're not
here because we figure that the Democrats will do any more for the
poor than the Republicans will do. After all, both major parties are
part of the capitalist system. Being the movement people that we are,
we all know these two things quite intuitively:
1 – Our purpose and goal is to effect
positive social change irrespective of party affiliation – ours or
that of the next occupant of the White House.
2 – We own whoever wins on
November 8th.
You might come to this space as a
homeless advocate. You might advocate for access to nutritious food.
You might be fighting to preserve public housing. You might work to
end one or more of our wars so that, As MLK, Jr. suggested, the
money our government spends decimating other countries can be put to
better use caring for the needy here at home. No matter what
brings you here, we are all united in common cause against the
atrocities of capitalism and to promote the creation of a system that
ensures that all able-bodied people can afford the necessities of
life with the pay they earn while the elderly and disabled are cared
for.
I'm a homeless advocate who lives in
Washington, DC where there were at least 8,350 homeless people as of
January 2016. That's up 1,052 or 14.4% from 7,298 homeless people in
January 2015. I might add that there was also a significant jump from
2013 when we counted 6,859 homeless people to 2014 when there were at
least 7,748 homeless people in the capital of the most powerful
nation on Earth.
I was bothered in June 2014 when, at
the quarterly meeting of DC's Inter-agency Council on Homelessness
(ICH), there was no discussion by committee members of the
substantial one-year increase in homeless people – the numbers
having been published in May. I became suspicious that local
officials were trying to sweep their failures under the rug. The
non-profit that normally does the report-out told me that they
weren't asked to do their usual presentation. Go figure. To be fair,
the ICH was going through a transition at the time. With all that's
happened since June 2014, that matter is water under the bridge and
we have bigger fish to fry – if we can ever catch them and kill
them.
In 2016 a reason was given for the
increase. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser who took office in 2015 changed the
draconian policies of her predecessor by granting families greater
access to shelter. This, in turn, led to homeless families who needed
shelter before 2015 coming out of the woodwork. While I don't doubt
that possibility, whether the newly homeless are entering shelter
immediately after being evicted from their most recent rental or by
way of Mom's couch is of less consequence than the fact that they now
need shelter in the short term and affordable housing in the long
term. That said, it hurts the poor any time that any government
focuses on blaming the previous administration, saving face and
making excuses rather than charting a path forward and figuring out
how to solve a social ill. To put it another way, the government
shouldn't focus too much on asking when those who
present at shelter became homeless – in 2014 or 2015. They should
be trying to assess the total current need – of those in shelter,
those on the streets and those who are couch surfing. Government
should then consider how to ensure that ALL
such people are housed and that everyone has access to affordable
housing – no matter what year they became homeless.
That brings me to the good news and to
some ideas as to what we as a movement can do to effect the positive
change that we so strongly desire and so urgently need. The first bit
of good news is that DC Government, the local advocates, the
non-profits and the council have begun to move in a direction that
might actually end homelessness in DC by the end of 2020 – assuming
that a number of things work out as predicted for the next four
years. The locals there were able to develop a somewhat
comprehensive plan only because of federal laws and programs such as
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), the Workforce Innovations and
Opportunities Act (WIOA), Veterans' Administration Supportive Housing
(VASH) and the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to
Housing (HEARTH) Act. With the HEARTH Act of 2009 mandating
that municipalities find ways to reduce homelessness and WIOA (which
was signed by Obama on July 22nd, 2014) mandating that
municipalities serve those who have barriers to employment by
connecting them to living-wage jobs, this means that the Obama
administration has given us something to build our demands on.
The movement can find ways to leverage existing laws before demanding
that our officials create better laws. Let's not reinvent the wheel.
At the same time, let's not operate
under any illusion that the powers that be will readily bend to the
will of the electorate. As Frederick Douglass told us, “Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will”.
Let's use the “gunboat diplomacy” of Teddy
Roosevelt who said, “Speak softly; but, carry a big stick”.
The movement needs to have a threat to hold over the heads of
those in power. I can think of a number of such threats. Some
of them actually fall within the constraints of the law. We can start
by developing a shared vision for society; but, government won't feel
all that threatened by a room full of people reading and discussing
Plato's Republic. We can organize; but, we may find ourselves going
up against the likes of J. Edgar Hoover or Congressman Joseph
McCarthy. We can show ourselves to have some staying power; but,
should always be cognizant of the fact that the fire hoses and dogs
of the 1960's have been replaced with militarized police forces. In
any instance, I strongly believe that, no matter who wins on November
8th, those who supported the loser will partake in a
rebellion which could turn into a full-on revolution. We who are
already socially and politically conscience need to make sure that,
when that energy is created, that it is geared toward realizing our
goals and that it doesn't fizzle out until those goals have been
reached. As an old man recently told me, “You've got to be ready
to stand up for what you believe in; and, once you've won, you have
to be prepared to hold on to what you've got”.
Are you ready???
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