From the comment thread of my last post on Occupy Bellingham (Link HERE.)
Based on this opinion, that has been repeated desperately in this blog and on the Herald's web site, I shall now make a supposition.
I am expected to believe that before Occupy Bellingham started its encampment, Maritime Heritage Park was free of homeless. There were no pan-handlers. There were no substance abusers. The park was a place of idyllic quiet in the heart of Bellingham.
Then Occupy Bellingham showed up and the population went from zero homeless to... you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a drug-using pan-handling homeless person.
And it's all Occupy Bellingham's fault. If we ended our encampment, there would be no more pan-handling, or drug and alcohol use in the Park.
Except, unlike Captain Anonymous, I've actually spent time in Maritime Heritage Park. And I've been in and near the encampment. There are a lot of homeless in the Park. And we have been reminded, as Occupiers, that the homeless community are the original occupiers of Maritime Heritage Park. They were here long before we arrived, and will likely be here long after we are gone. The Occupy Movement has had to come to terms with this fact and show respect to the First Occupiers.
One of the problems that the Occupy Movement presents to the comfortable is that it accentuates problems with society such as the issue of homelessness.
Folks like Anonymous just want to go back to sleep and pretend that everything is okay if we just clap our hands and believe hard enough.
I'm not going back to sleep. Things have been too damn far from okay for too damn long.
The presence of the Encampment at Maritime Heritage Park is such that it does compel the public to look long and hard at problems that have been left just below the surface of our collective consciousness. The issue of the homeless shivering in the cold winter air is just one of many.
You say you've been pan-handled in the Park? I say, I believe you.
You say you've seen and smelled drug use in the Park? I say, I believe you.
You say you've seen these things happen in the Occupy Bellingham Encampment itself? I say, you are a liar.
The smell of marijuana is not a smell that dissipates easily or quickly. It is a cloying smell that lingers, and is not mistakable for anything else. If there was drug use in the Encampment, I would know about it.
There isn't.
This is not Oakland.
This is not Portland.
This is not Seattle.
This is Bellingham.
And this is the Occupation of Subdued Excitement.
Thanks for the concern, trolls. Now go take a nap.
...
I base my opinion on my experience with the "occupiers" there who've panhandled me and who I've seen/smelled drinking and smoking weed. I've had more of them ask me for my spare change than try to give me a flyer or a leaflet explaining their position.
...
Based on this opinion, that has been repeated desperately in this blog and on the Herald's web site, I shall now make a supposition.
I am expected to believe that before Occupy Bellingham started its encampment, Maritime Heritage Park was free of homeless. There were no pan-handlers. There were no substance abusers. The park was a place of idyllic quiet in the heart of Bellingham.
Then Occupy Bellingham showed up and the population went from zero homeless to... you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a drug-using pan-handling homeless person.
And it's all Occupy Bellingham's fault. If we ended our encampment, there would be no more pan-handling, or drug and alcohol use in the Park.
Except, unlike Captain Anonymous, I've actually spent time in Maritime Heritage Park. And I've been in and near the encampment. There are a lot of homeless in the Park. And we have been reminded, as Occupiers, that the homeless community are the original occupiers of Maritime Heritage Park. They were here long before we arrived, and will likely be here long after we are gone. The Occupy Movement has had to come to terms with this fact and show respect to the First Occupiers.
One of the problems that the Occupy Movement presents to the comfortable is that it accentuates problems with society such as the issue of homelessness.
Folks like Anonymous just want to go back to sleep and pretend that everything is okay if we just clap our hands and believe hard enough.
I'm not going back to sleep. Things have been too damn far from okay for too damn long.
The presence of the Encampment at Maritime Heritage Park is such that it does compel the public to look long and hard at problems that have been left just below the surface of our collective consciousness. The issue of the homeless shivering in the cold winter air is just one of many.
You say you've been pan-handled in the Park? I say, I believe you.
You say you've seen and smelled drug use in the Park? I say, I believe you.
You say you've seen these things happen in the Occupy Bellingham Encampment itself? I say, you are a liar.
The smell of marijuana is not a smell that dissipates easily or quickly. It is a cloying smell that lingers, and is not mistakable for anything else. If there was drug use in the Encampment, I would know about it.
There isn't.
This is not Oakland.
This is not Portland.
This is not Seattle.
This is Bellingham.
And this is the Occupation of Subdued Excitement.
Thanks for the concern, trolls. Now go take a nap.
Wish I could read the Herald site but as I was banished for the lamest assed reason by the grumpy old fart who is too busy to give it the attention Sam did(his words) I'll have to take your word for it as Internet sites are few and far between in this neck of Fiji and I haven't read it in weeks. Stark should really just retire and turn over the job to someone with the disposition to deal with folks he doesn't agree with, but then as I know him from way back, this has been personal. Did the person who impersonated me also get banned, thought it was AFY which is why I posted a silly one liner about me being his favorite commenter and imitating as me to draw him out, something he actually said
ReplyDeleteonce, though sarcastically, and I never tried to pretend to be anyone else any more than the person who tried to make me sound silly by saying things I would never say...kerfuffle....what a crappy way to treat someone, but then I have questioned his so called reportage going way back after having been involved in issues he spent less time researching than it took me to type this.
Things that make you go hmm...
ReplyDelete30 years ago, when I was a very young mother, two pan-handlers pinned me up against the side of my car while I was attempting to balance a car seat with my 4 month old infant, so I could unlock my car door. The location was Cornwall and Holly Street, close to Sands Children's Store. P.S. I smelled marijuana and alcohol on the guys. Oh, and the police never caught them, even though they robbed me of every dollar I had on my person. A few years later, my mother in law had her purse stolen and her arm broken by a thief on Railroad Avenue. A couple of years after that, a teenager knocked my mother in law down at Bellis Fair Mall. The cops dropped her off at her house, with another broken arm.
A couple of years ago, my son was jumped by 7 guys in an alley as he attempted to walk a customer from his place of employment to the safety of her car. He was hit in the back of the head with a pipe, but some how managed to regain his footing and protect the girl from being attacked by the seven men. (Yes, gentlemen, that could have been your wife, sister or daughter. Again, the Bellingham Police did nothing. And, it should come as no surprise that there was no mention of the crime in the paper.
Drugs, pan-handling, theft and violent assault has been happening in this City for decades. So much for wild rants that it "only began at Maritime Heritage Park with the Occupy Bellingham movement."
I've been pan-handled to the point of exhaustion in this town over the last 30 years. Pan-handling and drug use is hardly a new development here.
So after weeks I am allowed to post again at the log and I use a name I have used for a year plus my 3year old e-mail and now I'm banned again? For what? The only conclusion I draw from this is John Stark isma flaming, pustule on a hemorrhoid in an asshole...
ReplyDeleteLot of culture shock returning to America after traveling widely this past year. Throughout the journey, I observed that most countries in the world are dealing with many of the same issues as we face here. What I also observed is that of all the countries I visited, none are as able to turn their backs on the plight of the homeless and disenfranchised as America. The richest country in the world. the richest middle class. And the biggest disparity between the small percentage who skim the cream of capitalism and those who make their greed possible with their underpaid labors and their misery born of an uncaring nation.
ReplyDeleteOahu is on the verge of passing a law that would allow the police to seize the belongings of homeless people because so many rich Haoles who have come here to live like kings in paradise, don't want to be confronted by the dark side of their capitalistic delusions. How heartless as a people,, how corrupt of spirit and caring and basic humanity can a people be who's prime concerns are not creating a broader safety net for the mentally ill, the impoverished, the disabled vets, the infirm and the elderly who have fallen through the giant cracks in our system that cares more about the delicate sensibilities of the rich than the health and welfare of societies most vulnerable.
Personal responsibility and choice is often cited as a rationalization for turning our backs on the psychologically damaged, the drug addicted and the poor. If you just work hard, obey the laws and play by the rules you will all achieve a level of success, goes the myth that is divorced from the realities of modern life where the wealth of the rich is built on the backs of the poor and the underpaid who only sink lower in the mire if ill health strikes in a nation that wants nothing more than to turn away from their fellow man in time of health crisis and leave them to the wolves of Big Insurance and Pharma and Medical.
The souless cling to the belief that because they had luck and circumstance on their side, there is no reason everyone doesn't have the same opportunities. This is the sickest lie at the heart of a truly sick society that does not want to confront the fact that their successes come at the expense of others. Denial reigns supreme in this nation and it all combines to clearly paint a picture of America as truly corrupt of spirit and bereft of humanity. I am ashamed to identify as a member of this society. I am ashamed of my country and my fellow countrymen. Almost anywhere I have been is at the least aware of the sheer whim of luck and circumstance that separates us from the disadvantaged and at minimum attempting to right wrong headed attitudes than what I see day in and out in the American press and from it's leaders, most especially Republicans.
Where to go to escape this sick society is the question, as every country in the world, through the Occupy movement, takes their anger to the streets to confront the rich who increasingly lord their comfort over the peasantry. Non violent protest is the dream of those who believe that appeals to humanity is the surest approach. The example of Ghandi though, while inspiring, also gives too much comfort to the bastards who only deserve the worst.
And because America and the rich of the world have lost their humanity, the worst is what they will give in return as the very institutions of Christianity that purport to follow the teachings of Christ are at the heart of the corruption because they are able to view non believers as lessers and they only embrace the selective teachings that suit them. And they are perfectly capable of the compartmentalization of beliefs and actions. And in that way the religion many Americans claim for our nation poisons the nations soul soul and allows it's inhumanity to flourish.