A few of us Kossacks have gotten started on getting organized about homeless advocacy, and I volunteered to start the Google Group. It's at http://groups.google.com/...
We went back and forth some about the name. It was a group effort, this business of naming. Something with "roots" at the end, and perhaps something about loss? We worked through "no roots," and stuff about homes.
And then we settled on something about breakage.
Cosmic Debris got us started with this diary, "Safety Nets Becoming Dragnets." Thanks to everyone who commented; it was a good discussion. I especially liked hannah's comprehensive comment.
Having taken the jump off the cliff in deciding to become an actual political activist homeless advocate type person, I got to thinking, just in reading cd's diary and the comments, about what we blog about here and how much of it is directly connected to homelessness. I/P? Total homelessness. Homeless Jewish people wanting to finally have a home, displaced Palestinians wanting their home, too. Economy? Total homelessness. How many people with money don't have homes? A few, sure; but it's not common.
War? Do I have to explain?
Craziness? Being perceived as crazy does not increase your chances of having a home, I assure you. Even a home here on DK.
What else do we talk about here? Well, we talk about pets a lot, god love us. Homeless people often try to keep their pets. It often doesn't work. So homelessness is seriously about pets, too. When I think about possibly becoming homeless, about the first thing that pops into my mind is "But what would happen to Casey???"
We also talk about gardening. There are wonderful people here on Daily Kos who are involved in community gardening. Should I ever become homeless and lose my dog, at least maybe I might wind up somewhere where Kossacks are promoting community gardening. I might be able to get into something like that, even all raggedy and homeless and dogless. I can speak well, and I know a lot about plants. It's quite possible I'd be so screwed up at that point that I'd burst into tears if anyone was kind enough to offer to let me into such an enterprise, but I know Kossacks are liberal (well, I know lots of Kossacks are liberal) and liberals understand pain.
Okay, what else do we talk about here...well, sometimes we talk about fixing things. I wish I'd become a photographer about 30 years ago, so I could have photographed that amazing homeless guy with the bicycle hooked up to the trailer with all the tents and other stuff and various accoutrements, who tooled around West Los Angeles for years, all self-contained, camping out quietly where people didn't run him off. I bet he was good at fixing things.
Oh, and we talk about pain. We talk about pain a hell of a lot here, don't we? god bless us.
How are we homeless?
How are they homeless?
What's this "we" and "they" thing?
I know this is kinda schmaltzy, but I gotta say it. We're ALL homeless as long as anybody is homeless. We are all responsible.
And no, I'm not saying "Bad Kossack! You should be spending money on homeless organizations!" or anything like that. Should I become sufficiently apprised of a really firstrate homeless advocacy organization, I'll look forward to blogging about those wonderful people here.
What I want to say, though; is "Good Kossack! You understand these things. Understand them more, every time you run across someone who seems mad, ragged, disoriented, lost. Understand that it's always an opportunity for contact."
I'll close with one of the haiku I wrote years back about homeless trashpickers:
"Open-toothed, he gapes
When I say hello to him
And tell him my name."
Miep