Tick Tock Sheptock

1 -- Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, just killed 10 people at a Texas high school -- the state being no stranger to mass shootings or the threat of massive armed resistance. 2 - Poverty and homelessness affect Black Americans in equally bad or even worse ways than they did when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Movement began its Poor People's Campaign in January of 1968. 3 -- Regular church attendance is dwindling, though I suspect that those who tend to keep their pews full do so by attributing popular contemporary thinking to God and/or Christ -- whether or not there is any Biblical or historical basis for their claims. ( People don't know how to self-validate and they want to be told a nice fairy tale or bedtime story about a god who supports what they already choose to do -- not to be told that God demands that they change their ways. They should learn to self-validate -- to say, "I am so-and-so; and I choose to live this way, no matter who doesn't like it.....u...

It struck me this morning that this e-mail constitutes a blog post that should go out to many more than the 40 people I sent it to originally. It speaks to the many actions that are taking place over the next several weeks to bring attention to the issue of poverty and to change the narrative that government uses to justify ignoring the issue: All, Washington, DC has begun its "PERFECT STORM OF EVENTS THAT CENTER AROUND HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY". Many people are coming through Washington, DC to speak truth to power between May 13th and June 23rd. Get in on the action!!!!! 1 of 5 -- May 13th through June 23rd: Poor People's Campaign. By now, pretty much anyone who works on poverty-related issues has heard about the new PPC which takes its name from one of MLK, Jr's last efforts in early 1968. HERE is the PPC website that is specifically for DC. Each week has a theme. Though we care about multiple issues, I've...

On May 12th, 2018 Ryan Cooper of the People's Policy Project (founded in 2017) addressed the DC Grassroots Planning Coalition which also has been meeting since 2017 to develop a broad public response to the city government's "master plan for finalizing it's 20-year-and-counting effort toward gentrifying those who make less than $60K annually out of the city" -- an effort known simply as the " Comprehensive Plan " but for which many advocates and activists have alternative names such as the "Comprehensive Scam" or the "Incomprehensible Plan". Mr. Cooper spoke about "SOCIAL HOUSING" : an international phrase used to describe various forms of government-controlled or -subsidized housing (Public Housing in the U.S., Council Housing in the U.K., etc.). He made what were, to myself anyway, convincing arguments for why a form of social housing that differs starkly from this country's Public Housing model can work well and a...

FIRST OF ALL, I'd like to recognize an employed homeless man named SOLOMON ZAWDEE who recently died after being hit by a driver who never stopped . The homeless shelter is partially responsible for his death. See the explanation at the end of this post. ********************************************************************** " [T]he stricter rules have simply ensured shelter space is available for those who have no alternative, as opposed to others who might not like living with relatives in a crowded home, for instance."   (Washington Post quote from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser's director of the Inter-agency Council on Homelessness or ICH, Kristy Greenwalt. Maybe this gov official doesn't realize there are laws governing how many people may be "crowded" into a house or apt may be; or, she's deliberately encouraging illegal activity. ) At any rate, that's a loaded statement from Washington, DC's "homeless czar(ina) Krist...