Dark Confidence II: Social Services Revealed!

Quick, three dots review of some of the help I've gotten in New York City since landing here to escape my enemies' alarming bizarreness:

90 Lafayette's New York City Rescue Mission: Holy Hudson on the Half Moon! There was stuff going on at this bedehouse for the reprobate that would appall Miles Standish and a good many other 16th Century Indian killers. Zero out of five abbesses approve...

Schwartz Men's Assessment Shelter on Randall Island. Liveable, but the clients are not the only ones engaging in shady shenanigans. One night, there was a shortage of ratty blankets, but I laughed it off as, 'Okey-dokey, I guess IllI just cry all the way back to where I've got no land...' I did get to be a hero there, and save an overdosed man's life (but that I had to...) Vicious Calypso dragon lady Ms. B was particularly Trunchbullesque among staff. That said, points to the facility personnel and the friendly intake lobby NYPD sargeants for tipping me off to the arrival of notorious stalker Jesus Diaz...

Bellevue Psychiatric Emergency: good food, adequate head shrinks. Saw the good Corporal, my future husband (Syd's momser) there, and was so happy...

Praxis Housing Initiatives on 109th: Wonderful, until I got booted upon being accused of failing to cut up a chubby baby dyke, as though I'm that kind of evil straight chick from a Russ Meyer titty pic. Ms. C's 'caged heat' crap isn't washing as of this post, and I'm currently in talks with attorneys concerning the program's shitty treatment of me...

Save The Moronic, Legitimate, Market-Rate Residents of 26th and S. Van Ness!

I like how this petition's authors hope to gin up opposition to the opening of a homeless shelter by mentioning that it's to be in a "residential neighborhood" (virtually every neighborhood is -- except maybe most of the financial district) with "3 schools nearby," as though homelessness and children are mutually exclusive phenomena (and don't we love the dark implications inherent in the mention of homeless people and hoodlums in close enough proximity to each other?)

(Besides, the whole point of parents' raising their kids in the Mission is so that they can freak the fuck out when the fruit of their loins aren't home by the time BART closes; a body can still procure a decent brick of black tar for $5 a mere 10 blocks away if ever there's a real need for a fix; and the Eula's right up 16th, with suspicious staff hiding behind cages, and hardcore pornography playing in every bedbug-ridden room... Vive la difference!)

[ED NOTE: The Eula may no longer be in business, FYI...]

Original photography/artwork by William Way -- but loosey, goosey: feel free to snatch and pass around all you want; wouldn't mind credit if you can, tho'...

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No Justice, Just Us

Doing my itty-bitty part to help raise awareness, and to try and point out some possibilities for helping fight the good fight:

http://www.orangecountyfl.net/FamiliesHealthSocialSvcs/VeteransServices.aspx#.V18notQrJxA (the services to which they refer clients could probably always use mention or donations...)
http://www.shelterlistings.org/city/orlando-fl.html
http://www.foodpantries.org/ci/fl-orlando
www.thecenterorlando.org

While we continue to abide and continue to be appalled at our government's and law enforcement's response to gun violence and hate crimes, and while we continue to blog, protest, hold vigils, write letters to the editor, and so on, we have above (for starters) real, immediately achievable opportunities to put an answer to atrocities like what happened in Orlando, Florida.  The links in this post are listings or connections to services that can always use volunteers, money, in-kind donations, or simple promotion; doing such sends a clear message that love is always more powerful than hate.  Even $10 to a food pantry or a gift of children's clothing to a shelter for homeless families can make all the difference in the world to promoting the causes of love for one another and social justice.

Help Orlando, and help us all.

Here's A Tip

I would encourage the younger guys -- guys who served in Afghanistan and Iraq -- to watch FIRST BLOOD (1982).  Excellent movie for them.

(See?  Huh?  That'll teach you to be homeless and a veteran...)

I Asked Someone For Spare Change and Was Told To Get a Job

Thank God at least one of us was using his brain.  No wonder he's where he's at and I'm where I'm at...

"It’s called Housing First, because 'You have to have a home first. It’s pretty hard to solve your personal problems when you’re living under a park bench.'"

(I can't believe this approach is revolutionary, and yet of course it is.  All these degrading and mortifying programs that society persists in implementing from San Francisco to New York, programs modeled on first "fixing" what's wrong with people, and that people in need must be forced to change their maladaptive, undesirable behavior before they've earned the privilege of housing -- a mindset many unthinkingly share and assume we should all just go along with -- these programs have always put the cart before the horse, and in addition are highly ineffective and counterproductive.  An imperfect socioeconomic system, economic inequality, and institutionalized prejudice and injustice are the main root causes of poverty.  It is pointless and monstrous to blame poor choices made by the poor.  Paternalizing, uninformed and arrogant meddling, and human inertia among those in a position to render aid cannot continue.  And by the way, homelessness is the problem of those who are homeless but would rather not be -- it is not the problem of people whose ill-considered aesthetics, inexcusably fragile sensibilities, and inability to cope with reality are offended insofar as they perceive and are aware of the homeless; the latter group has real problems that are best addressed by swift kicks in the ass.)