by Debbie Brady
Denver’s Mayor Michael Hancock has declared war on the homeless citizens of Denver. He has not publicly declared this war, but the results are obvious. He has tasked his Deputy Chief of Staff Evan Dryer with sweeping the streets of unhoused citizens. This is a safe policy politically because no one wants to look at homeless folks living on their sidewalks.
But what happens to these folks when they are swept away. Do they just disappear? No. They go somewhere else and then the police end up chasing them from one end of the city to the other.
What has been accomplished here is we have poor people getting chased all over the city and cops wasting their time as real criminals run rampant in the city. Is this what we are paying our hard-earned tax dollars for? Not me. I would like to see some real solutions. No sooner has his honor cleaned up one street and made a grand appearance to the citizens in that neighborhood than he starts getting reports of another neighborhood getting flooded with the folks he just swept away. Must be frustrating. I feel sorry for the poor guy. You would think he would start looking at pursuing some other way to deal with the problem. You would think. But no, politicians have pretty much a one track mind. All they can concentrate on, most of the time, is money and votes.
One definition of insanity, which I subscribe to, has been attributed to Einstein but that is unproven. It says that if a person keeps doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, that person is insane. By that guideline, in my opinion, most of our government is insane. But that’s just me.
So what’s a guy to do, if the people don’t want his services, don’t want to be bent, stapled and mutilated into his tidy system? Punt. Keep on doing what you know doesn’t work and pass the whole problem on to your successor. That is what has been happening since and even before John Stapleton, mayor and grand poobah of the KKK, made his mark in the 19th century. Insanity.
There are alternatives, of course, but getting the ear of the powers that be can be very difficult, especially if these alternatives are espoused by the people most affected by the problem: the street people. These are those folks most affected by the so-called problem and also the people with the least input when the subject is discussed, mostly in board rooms and fancy restaurants by the politicians and the tycoons who control them.
“Nothing about us, without us” they ask. Is that so hard to understand? Who do you know that wants their whole life decided in the 57th floor conference room of some glass and steel tower? Not me.
But what happens to these folks when they are swept away. Do they just disappear? No. They go somewhere else and then the police end up chasing them from one end of the city to the other.
What has been accomplished here is we have poor people getting chased all over the city and cops wasting their time as real criminals run rampant in the city. Is this what we are paying our hard-earned tax dollars for? Not me. I would like to see some real solutions. No sooner has his honor cleaned up one street and made a grand appearance to the citizens in that neighborhood than he starts getting reports of another neighborhood getting flooded with the folks he just swept away. Must be frustrating. I feel sorry for the poor guy. You would think he would start looking at pursuing some other way to deal with the problem. You would think. But no, politicians have pretty much a one track mind. All they can concentrate on, most of the time, is money and votes.
One definition of insanity, which I subscribe to, has been attributed to Einstein but that is unproven. It says that if a person keeps doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, that person is insane. By that guideline, in my opinion, most of our government is insane. But that’s just me.
So what’s a guy to do, if the people don’t want his services, don’t want to be bent, stapled and mutilated into his tidy system? Punt. Keep on doing what you know doesn’t work and pass the whole problem on to your successor. That is what has been happening since and even before John Stapleton, mayor and grand poobah of the KKK, made his mark in the 19th century. Insanity.
There are alternatives, of course, but getting the ear of the powers that be can be very difficult, especially if these alternatives are espoused by the people most affected by the problem: the street people. These are those folks most affected by the so-called problem and also the people with the least input when the subject is discussed, mostly in board rooms and fancy restaurants by the politicians and the tycoons who control them.
“Nothing about us, without us” they ask. Is that so hard to understand? Who do you know that wants their whole life decided in the 57th floor conference room of some glass and steel tower? Not me.
RSS Feed
