Tick Tock Sheptock

As you scroll through the videos in my blog, you'll come to the April 7th video of me conversing with my now former boss, Yvette. I began working for her on April 21st of this year. A friend actually stumbled upon the job and told me about it. The same friend had given me a cell phone with 200 minutes a week or so earlier and told me that he couldn't keep buying me minutes. I would have to find a way to pay for the minutes myself. He was surprised when I accepted the job, with me having not held a steady job in the 11 months that he had known me at that time. He'd given me the phone so that I could step up my homeless advocacy by being easier to contact and had now found a way for me to keep up the payments. I would end up working for Yvette's cleaning service -- Housewarming, LLC -- for four and a half months. Housewarming, LLC which was contracted to clean the Developing Families Center in NE Washington, DC. Though I only made $7/hour and worked 20 hours/week, it pa...

The Unwelcome Homeless In November of 2008 a Washington City Paper article indicated that the homeless are not welcome in the libraries of our nation's capital. An August 2009 New York times article addressed the criminalization of poverty nationally. Then, a September 2009 Washington Examiner article mentioned that the homeless are not welcome in the parks of Downtown Washington, DC. It's no military secret -- the homeless are America's most unwanted. What's most disturbing about this news is that our public officials are often the ones leading the charge against the homeless. Most homeless advocates wouldn't take offense to any reasonable request, such as wanting a homeless person to be presentable and well-mannered; but the mentally ill are one of the most underserved populations in the city, often leading to some very public psychotic episodes. And many of the homeless wouldn't loiter around businesses and other public places if they had some...

I hereby give my express permission for the following to be published on any and all printed and on-line publications including but not limited to newspapers, websites, blogs and forwarded e-mails. Please distribute widely, as the following is a true and accurate account of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's actions against the homeless..... (This is intended to become a STREET SENSE article, though I suppose it will not appear in the 9/16 issue but will be in the 9/30 issue.) DC MAYOR TRIES TO RID CITY OF HOMELESS In a recent STREET SENSE article I pointed out that the homeless often have "no place to go". This article can be seen as an addendum to that. I came out of the subway system at Judiciary Square just before noon on Wednesday, September 9th, having used the 4th Street exit. As I walked from the escalator toward 4th street, I saw several homeless people speaking to a HAWK ONE security guard who was doing a glorified disclaimer by telling people that he only carrie...

I recently had a situation that almost left me unemployed. Fortunately, my job was saved. I'm still not completely out of the woods though. But for now I'll enjoy my continued employment for what it's worth. You can scroll down to the April 7th video and see me conversing with my boss, Yvette. As it turns out, she recently had a health issue that required surgery. (I'll afford her some privacy by not disseminating all of the details of her diagnosis/prognosis.) while she was out of commission, she gave her mother authority over her cleaning service. Yvette's mother (who is affectionately known as "Mom" by Yvette's employees and others at the Developing Families Center) was upset about the place having not been cleaned according to her (Mom's) standard, even though she was just assuming authority. She threatened to fire the whole crew. Ed, the supervisor, informed me on the night of Thursday, August 27th that Friday, the 28th would be my last day....

In a previous blog post I began to address the issue of universal healthcare. I mentioned the fact that many people are labeling Obama a Socialist and that the reason that many don't want single-payer healthcare is that they fear that the nation might be on track to become Socialist. I've yet to hear anyone call him a Communist, though Communism is what Socialism tends to transform into. As it turns out, I meet regularly with a friend named Walda Katz-Fishman who is a professor of sociology at Howard U. I also have other friends and acquaintances who are into sociology, collectivism and social justice. The common sentiment among the sociology-types that I associate with is that Obama is more of a Fascist than a Socialist. Their claim is that, even though he is overhauling the U.S. Government, it is in the interest of the crapitalists, whereas Socialism is a system that lifts up the working class. That said, I'll address the issues of single-payer and the government option i...

I just wrote the following article for a paper called the People's Tribune. I decided to cover the issue of Obama possibly being a Socialist in the next post, not this one as previously stated. (See previous post.) I hope you find it to be insightful..... The nation is up in arms about the healthcare issue. Obama is being depicted as a Socialist, the Joker and Charlie Chaplin. He is bearing the brunt of frustration with the healthcare system that people have felt since before the Clintons. As a matter of fact, Rush Limbaugh had a heyday mocking Bill Clinton's administration for having written a 100,000-page healthcare plan that never got implemented and went so far as to sell a Bill Clinton backwards-running watch. The fact of the matter is that, in spite of what manner of man Barack Obama is, he was elected as the head of a failed system which the best of us can never hope to heal. Nonetheless, the healthcare issue may very well become the impetus for systemic change. It ...

A parishoner at my church, the Church of the Epiphany, at 1317 G Street in northwest DC recently sent me an e-mail stating that a woman who reads this blog has donated 700 pairs of socks to Epiphany, where much is done to help the homeless. The church didn't have enough storage space for all of them and therefore had some sent to S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat), which feeds the homeless and has a number of other programs. It is good to know that my efforts are paying off and helping others. Thanks to the donor, whoever you are. I also use Facebook and am proud to say that a FB friend named Josh Faulkner has found a way to help the homeless due to advice that I gave him. As it turns out, someone had donated some old, inefficient computers to a homeless shelter. Josh, being a computer specialist, was asked to hook them up. He saw that they weren't worth anything and found some better computers. He has gotten them up and running. Thanks to him, homeless people in and around Pine ...