The Cuckoo's Nest: Ain't Dead Yet

I got a phone call several days ago from one the angels on Eschaton.  Folks noticed that I hadn't dropped by there to chat and hadn't posted anything here in weeks.  She called to see how I was doing.  Needless to say, I was deeply touched.  Human kindness always warms my heart, especially when it is headed in my direction.

I assured her that I was doing fine, at least when all things are considered, and I am.  No, neither the diagnoses nor the prognosis have changed.  I'm still dying, although a little more slowly than any of us expected and (to be frank) than I had hoped.  But that's OK too.  I am not exactly suffering.

What pain I do have is eased by some mild opiates.  My lungs are scrubbed often enough to keep me breathing.  I'm pretty much dependent on oxygen all the time, save for the times I go out and have a few puffs on a cigarette.  Thanks to another drug (Prednisone), my appetite has returned and I've not only stopped losing weight, I've actually gained a little, putting me back over the 100 pound level.  I get all the food I want, and a sweet friend keeps me supplied in chocolate.  I get spoiled by the staff on a regular basis, and that has become more necessary as my energy levels have dropped and become shorter-lived.

I do, however, still have enough energy to walk, using my wheelchair as a walker.  I still am able to feed the birds and the squirrels, although my funds are getting a little short in the bird and squirrel food account and I've had to resort to spreading dried bread and crackers on a few occasions.  My critter friends have been very understanding, as have the meal servers who sneak me the bread and crackers.

Although my energy is low, my brain is still working, and that's very important to me.  I've taken to memorizing things, like song lyrics and poetry and biblical passages which seem to have a deeper message for me now.  I shouldn't have worried about the Alzheimer's curse.  It hasn't really taken root yet.

I do have difficulty getting the connection from my headbone to my hands to work reliably, which is why I haven't been on line much either at Eschaton or here.  I seem to be doing better the last couple of days, and I do hope it continues, especially with election season at hand.  Lots of great cartoonists are already sharpening their pencils and lots of pundits are already making predictions.

So, I really am doing fine, sustained by friends and caretakers and the sense that I am exactly where I am supposed to be (literally and figuratively) doing what I am supposed to do.  For that I am grateful.  Each day is a blessing for me, and I appreciate all the beauty that life holds for all of us if we will just pay attention.  Since I have plenty of time right now, I'm doing just that.

And when it's time, I'll exit and be grateful for that as well.  I'm not afraid and haven't been since I got the news that my life was going to be a little shorter than I anticipated.  None of us have been guaranteed immortality. In fact, getting that news was a well-timed kick in the butt.  It enabled me to wrap us some things I'd been ignoring, like appointing someone to make decisions for me if I became too ill or too screwy to be rational, like making it clear that I did not want any heroic measures to keep me alive, like sending my body to the nearest school or lab for taking tissue samples and useable organs via an organization which would then cremate me at no cost (I selected ScienceCare.com, but there are others), and like saying "thank you" and "I love you" when it was appropriate.

I'm not going to give you any New Age-y or evangelical baloney of what comes next, because, frankly I really don't know.  I'll find out soon enough, and that's good enough for me.  The only advice I would give you I saw on a tee shirt a fellow resident wears on occasion:  "Live each day as if it were your last ... one day you'll get it right."

And that's just what I'm doing.

For those who would like to assist in any fashion, the only thing I need right now is a little cash for the critter food fund, but even that's not crucial.  If you're in the mood, just hit the donation button above.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to watch the doves and house sparrows come down for breakfast.  It's a great way to start the day.

A Success, Now Struggling

 

(Cartoon by Jeff Stahler and published 1/13/14 at Go Comics.)

I've been following the project begun and run by Father Gregory Boyle here in Los Angeles for at least 15 years.  Homeboy Industries is one of the most successful projects of its kind in the world.  Once again, unfortunately, the project is having serious financial difficulties.

From yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

For a quarter of a century, Boyle has steered boys and girls, and men and women, out of the gang life through Homeboy Industries, which offers job training, counseling, tattoo removal and more. The model Boyle built has been replicated around the country and abroad.

Here in Los Angeles, some120,000 gang members have voluntarily asked Father Boyle for help starting over. They struggle daily against the socioeconomic forces that drew them into gang life. But Homeboy itself confronts another daily struggle.

 Making ends meet.

 “Our government funding has gone in the last three years from 20% of our annual $14-million budget to 3%,” Boyle told the police commissioners. [Emphasis added]

Right now, the project is short by about $1 million, which means Fr. Boyle will have to lay off staff and cut back on some of the services so necessary to these young women and men who are attempting to make a new start at life, one outside the gangs and away from criminal activity.  Social workers, tattoo removal experts, drug counselors -- all an integral part of the rehabilitation of these kids, our kids -- will soon find themselves out of work if the money doesn't come from somewhere. 

Given the current Congress, it's clear that it won't be coming from the feds. Further, Gov. Brown has suddenly turned into a frugal spender.  After dragging the state out of the red on the backs of the poor, he now wants to put the current budget surplus into a "rainy day fund." 

You'd think a city with so many millionaires that bailing out the Museum of Modern Art of it's much larger deficit only took one dinner party that a project such as this would have no problems.  Well, unless this article stimulates some action from those who can easily throw another dinner party, Homeboy Industries will sink. I hope someone follows though.

Note:  If you have some spare cash this month, please consider a donation to the project by going here. 

With Deep Gratitude

Yes, it's a cute cat picture, and a very apt one, I might add.

The response to my post from yesterday was overwhelming.  I've staved off the crunch I was in and found myself lifted from the pit I had fallen into. (How's that for mixing metaphors!)

To say I am grateful doesn't even come close to what I'm feeling.  I am indeed thankful that there is such a caring community to come to the rescue of those in need of rescue.  I am especially grateful to ql and Erin for pimping my post so I didn't have to expose my shattered emotions even further.

To my friends at Eschaton, many hugs.  To my friends from the elder blogs, many hugs.

My perspective has indeed changed, and I'm ready to return to the battles.  Expect substantive blogging tomorrow.  We've got a lot of work to do.

But We COULD Have Nice Things

(Graphic found at Eschaton.  Click on image to enlarge.  Do it so you can read it easily.  Then please come back.  I'll explain it later.)

Susie Madrak found the most incredible article I've read in a long time.  I'm going to excerpt a little bit of it, but you really need to read the whole thing.

I never thought I'd use this column to write about a Laundromat's success. Or that the column would be sprinkled with words like "grace," "mercy" and "fabulous." But something other than Starbucks coffee is brewing at The Laundry Cafe, and it says a lot about community, expectations and - dare I say this? - love.

But let's first talk about owners Akins and Holland, who met while working together at Johnson & Johnson - Akins in marketing, Holland in sales. Both were deeply affected by the company's famous credo of responsibility to customers, employees, communities and stockholders.

So when they decided to go into business together - "Laundry is practically recession-proof," says Akins, "since people will always need clean clothes" - they wrote their own credo, which is printed on their business cards:

"Serve with honor. Grow with humility. Live with respect. Repay with generosity."

The men, who grew up poor, had seen little of those virtues in the dark, dingy and depressing Laundromats their families once used. ...

Hence, The Laundry Cafe, which attracted a crowd on opening day, April 13, and whose business has ballooned 300 percent since, using only word of mouth for advertising. Customers are pulled in by a breadth of amenities usually not offered in low-income areas. What makes them stay, the men are convinced, is the unspoken message those amenities telegraph: That customers are worthy of them.

 What these young men did was to turn a laundromat into a center for the community.  Yes, there are washers and dryers, but there's also coffee, and room for discussions and lectures and meetings.  And the people of that community have used it for all of that, and kept it neat and functioning.  It's their place as much as Akins' and Holland's.

Now compare that story with the vile message from Ed Conard.  See the difference?  More importantly, see the implications?

I hope you will pass both stories around freely, maybe even to your Congress Critter and the Administration.  And I also hope you will make some pretty strong demands.  We are worthy of having those demands met.

Some Thoughts On Higgs Boson

I'm not very sociable, but there are people on this planet I would go out of my way to have a beer with. David Horsey is one of those people. His July 5, 2012 cartoon and column provide a pretty good reason why. Yes, both have his trademark snark, but his column raises some pretty serious issues which he deals with in a wonderfully refreshing manner.

The "God particle" -- the Higgs boson -- exists, and that is good news. Without it, the universe would fly apart and we would have much more to worry about than a jobless recovery, immigrants sneaking across the border or the fate of "Obamacare."

On the Fourth of July, after 50 years of theorizing, hard research and sending protons careening into each other at something near the speed of light, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced that they have almost certainly detected a boson. For the uninitiated -- which is about 99% of us -- a boson is one of two elementary particles that quantum theory says make up the universe. The other particles are fermions, also known as matter, such as protons and electrons. ...

The news about the "God particle" is one of those challenging bits of information that can make everything else feel terrifyingly insignificant. It is a reminder that each of us is merely a tiny, carbon-based organism existing for a brief moment on a small planet that, by the scale of the universe, is no more singular than a grain of sand on a beach. We are dust in the wind, utterly inconsequential in the dark expanse of time and space.

At least that's one way to look at it. Another way to see it is that, in all that vastness, only we are aware of the awesome complexity. Only we strive to know and understand. All the rest is mere physical phenomena. What we do in our brief lives on this small planet may be the only thing that matters.

Thus, it behooves us to use our sliver of time well. We can waste it watching "Dancing With The Stars" or we can reach for the stars. We can squander it being petty, cruel, selfish or destructive, or we can be creative, compassionate, kind and just. The Higgs boson may glue this universe together, but we are the ones who give it meaning.

Yes.

Wise man, that David Horsey.

A Sign Of Hope

Sometimes people amaze me in a good way, and this is one of those times. Three returning vets decided to make a difference in a Baltimore neighborhood. Against pretty daunting odds, they are succeeding.

Operation Oliver, which began in July, is a one-year commitment to the neighborhood, the veterans say. It involves cleaning up alleys, rehabilitating homes, organizing volunteers and notifying police about illegal dumping sites and drug dealing.

To say the idea has caught on would be an understatement. Word of the intensive yearlong service project has spread throughout Maryland — and the nation.

Some veterans, such as Earl Johnson, a former Army Ranger who served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, have moved into the neighborhood. Others, such as Jeremy Johnson and Blake, live elsewhere but visit Oliver frequently. Nearly 1,000 volunteers, including more than 100 veterans, have joined the effort. ...

The improvement is noticeable. Nearly 50 homes are being rehabilitated through Earl Johnson's organization, the One Green Home at a Time Foundation, another of the partners. Five tons of trash have been hauled away, an area that was once a site of prostitution is now a playground, an organic garden is planned for a weed-filled lot, and the veterans take residents on weekly job-hunting trips.

The neighborhood of about 5,000 people is predominantly black, and more than 70% of Oliver's households earn less than $25,000 a year. Of its 2,600 properties, more than 1,100 are listed as vacant by the city.

Because city and states can't or won't do the work necessary to rehabilitate such neighborhoods, the people had to do their own community redevelopment and had to do so without the funds which too often go to gentrification projects and strip malls. Instead of poor families being forced out, they are taking part in their neighborhood.

Glibertarian and other conservative sorts will probably use this as an example of why government assistance in such projects is unnecessary, that the people are capable of pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. That's too facile an explanation. The people of that neighborhood needed the help and the encouragement provided by those returning veterans precisely because they had been forgotten and ignored by their own government. Now they're reclaiming what was theirs all along.

Good on them, and good on those vets.

Jesus Wept

I thought seriously about skipping any substantive blogging for today, it being Christmas and all, but I am a creature of habit, so I made my weekly trek to Watching America. There wasn't much to grab me until I did a little nosing around. This is what I found.

From Austria's Die Presse:

Every 45th American child was considered homeless in the past year; 42 percent of them were six years old or younger. A study of the National Center for Homeless Families arrived at this result, reporting the number of homeless children for each of the 50 states separately.

According to the study, the U.S. West and Southeast are the hardest hit: The negative frontrunners are the currently Republican-governed states Alabama, Mississippi, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as Democratic-governed California and Arkansas. Every second homeless child is believed to live in one of these states.

The study spotlighted a period of four years and determined that even 2006, the “Year of Natural Disasters,” did not represent the high point of homelessness for children. At that point there were already 1.5 million U.S. children with no roof over their heads as a consequence of hurricanes Katrina and Rita; this number increased to 1.6 million in 2010. According to the study, the cause of the rise is the incipient recession in 2007. The conclusion is drawn that human-made disasters like the economic crisis can have a greater negative impact than natural disasters.

Further results of the study see a direct connection between the diminished ability of children to learn and the constant, traumatic experiences caused by homelessness. Not only do homeless children suffer from hunger, poor health and psychological problems, they also perform more poorly than “normal” children in reading and writing.

Merry Christmas.

While toys donated to the local Fire Departments and to the Marine Corps may take the edge of homelessness off on Christmas Day, those toys are thin soup come December 26th and the days and weeks thereafter.

There's something wrong with this nation, something dreadfully wrong.

Thank You!

This internet thingie is really amazing, but not nearly as amazing as the people who frequent it. My plea for help got an absolutely astounding response, and I'm absolutely stunned and grateful at the generosity of folks, most of whom I've never met in meat space.

As a result, I've dodged the bullet. I've garnered enough money to wipe out a chunk of the money I owed on the rent and the landlord has agreed to back off on the eviction as long as I keep up on the current rent and pay down the money still outstanding in monthly payment.

This whole drama did, however, affect my health a bit, and the cardiologist and pulmonologist both have me on bed rest for the rest of the week. So posting will be sporadic. They both have also ordered me to gain weight, so those of you who offered goodies can still help out. I like cookies and fudge a lot so please feel free to send them on over.

I've gotten some thank-you emails out, and I will be responding to the rest in the next day or two.

Again, thank you all. May we all have a much better New Year.

Will Blog For Food

Literally.

The hammer fell again, this time harder than usual. The landlord has given me a 3 day notice, and I barely have enough money to get to the local DPSS office to see if I can get a Department 8 grant for this month and next month to offset some of the balance I now owe.

As some of you know, I've not been working for the past 6 weeks at all, which leaves only my Social Security, which would have been fine if I hadn't had a serious pulmonary problem develop, which even with Medicare has tapped me out with all the co-pays for the specialists, tests, and medications. I also have state bar dues to pay if I want/am able to work next year. The main problem is that I only have enough money for that visit to Pasadena tomorrow. The cat has food. I have very little.

What I need is a bunch of small donations from a lot of people. I know it's the wrong time of the year to be asking for this kind of help (as if there's a right time), but I need it and I need it quickly. Please help if you can.

This time I'm really scared.

We Have To Destroy The Village To Save It

[Note: I promised regular blogging today, and here it is. I still could use some financial help (scroll down to see the problem), so if you are so inclined, please hit the Donate button. Thank you.]

They're not even pretending anymore. The Republicans are finally getting their chance to roll back the safety net provided by FDR and LBJ, and they are doing so with a vengeance. The excuse? We can't afford to take care of our elders, poor, and vulnerable.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Republicans are betting that a high-profile fight over government spending will swing budget-minded voters their way in the 2012 campaign.

But the largest savings in their plan would come from slashing popular programs that cover about 100 million Americans.

The GOP proposal would phase out direct payments to doctors and hospitals under Medicare, scale back the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, and throw out government insurance subsidies that the new healthcare law is to make available to millions of Americans starting in 2014.

That would force seniors to pay more for their healthcare and would likely make states cut back their Medicaid programs, the Congressional Budget Office concluded. ...

That could mean that senior citizens, the disabled and the poor will pay more, even as Washington pays less.

As one who is about to qualify for Medicare, I am both disgusted and worried. For years now I have been "prepaying" my Medicare premiums via tax deductions, so I am also more than a little resentful that Paul Ryan has decided to wipe all of that and my future security out. What really outrages me, however, is some rather interesting parts of the bill that apparently is going to make the rest of America feel better about his plan:

At the same time, Ryan's plan would permanently extend tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush.

It lowers the top tax rate for individuals and businesses from 35% to 25% and simplifies the tax code by eliminating unspecified loopholes, tax breaks and tax brackets.

See, it's all very simple. I, and the rest of the elders, will lose our benefits so that the wealthy can get all of theirs and more. Voila! Budgetary problems solved.

Stinks, don't it?

More Help Needed

Damn! I didn't want to have to come back and plead for more monetary assistance, but I lost my gamble on going without health insurance until I qualified for Medicare. The doctors' offices have been patient. The pharmacies, unfortunately, were not.

In any event, while one kind friend helped with the rent and living expenses last month, my office had to cut my hours even further (it's just not busy enough to justify my existence even as an independent contractor), which put me back in the hole.

It's down to the basics right now: food and shelter for me and the cats.

If you have a few extra dollars and you can throw them my way, I'd appreciate it.

If you can't help our right now monetarily, please throw some energy at the feds to ensure my first Social Security check shows up on April 13.

Thanks.

And regular posting returns tomorrow.

Righteously Correct

I admit to being very uncomfortable with terms such as "moral absolute" and "moral relativism." Both have one thing in common: they are summoned as justification for just about anything whenever an argument arises. It was somewhat refreshing, therefore, to read Gregory Rodriguez's attempt to deal with both terms in a rational way in his latest column.

Here's his starting point:

Political fanaticism fosters moral relativism. That's the lesson we should all learn from the gruesome case of Shawna Forde, the Arizona anti-immigrant vigilante who was convicted last week of two counts of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors argued that Forde and two accomplices killed 29-year-old Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, in a botched robbery attempt meant to raise money to fund a splinter group of the anti-immigrant Minuteman movement. ...

...Evidently, Forde's political fixation overrode any belief in the injunction that "thou shalt not kill."

Rodriguez summons other examples of a moral absolute transmuted by fanaticism leading to moral relativism: "enhanced interrogations" being justified in the name of national security; the shooting of abortion doctors being justified in the name of "murdered children-to-be." He even suggests that liberals are just as guilty, but cites Castro and Stalin supporters (which I find a bit of a stretch ... I would have used the Symbionese Liberation Army here).

We seem to be seeing a lot of this kind of deadly shift these days, especially in the US, and Rodriguez cites some authorities as to why this is happening.

The great irony is that many observers believe that the global rise in political and religious fanaticism is a reaction against the freedom, choices and moral relativism of modernity.

"Under modern conditions," sociologist Peter Berger has noted, "almost everyone lives in communities in which diversity has taken the place of consensus." Some people react poorly to this "certainty scarcity." They adopt fervent convictions — fundamentalism, if you will — as a coping mechanism.

A coping mechanism which plays out in the demonization of the other, which makes the torturing, even killing of that other justified.

In the only weak part of his column, Rodriguez concludes that the answer to this dilemma is to trust "the heart" to properly guide behavior. I'm not so sure that this works if the heart has never been taught those morals which values community in the midst of diversity. How to teach that kind of morality is the question which we'd better find the answer to.

Help Needed

I find myself in deep financial trouble. My hours have been cut once again, which means I'm done, ruined, forked, at least for the short term while I try to find another source of income. It appears, given the current job market and my age, that the other source will have to be early Social Security.

I thought, even before my job situation became more tenuous, things were going to be tight, so I cut back my expenses to the bone. I've even canceled my health insurance, praying that I wouldn't have any untoward accident or condition arise that would cost me more than $1,400 a month (my premium). So far I've been lucky in that respect, and I qualify for Medicare on August 1.

The short term, however, is disastrous. Last night I received my 3-day notice from the landlord. I will be out of cash and homeless very shortly if I don't come up with enough cash to show my landlord that I'm not a total flake. I need to raise $2,000 by Monday/Tuesday.

Please help if you can by clicking on the "Donate" button. If you don't like using PayPal, please email me at cabearie@earthlink.net and I'll give you other options. If you can't help right now with a donation to the care and feeding of a harmless old woman and her two cats, but you know someone who can, please alert them to my dilemma.

Thanks.

Mostly Right

One of the editorials in today's New York Times came amazingly close to my views on "faith based initiatives." The editorial takes a look at President Obama's tweaking of his predecessor's program and finds it lacking, as well it is. Here's the most important reason:

But the revisions have a glaring omission. Ignoring one of Mr. Obama’s own important campaign promises, and a large coalition of religious, education and civil rights groups, the new decree fails to draw a firm line barring employment discrimination on the basis of religion. The order leaves untouched a 2007 Justice Department memo that dubiously concluded that the government cannot order religious groups not to discriminate as a condition of federal financing. That memo should have been withdrawn long ago by this administration.

But here is where I part company with the editorial:

What is needed is a careful constitutional balance. Groups running worthy social service programs should not be disqualified from receiving federal financing simply because they have a religious affiliation. But they should get no special exemption from antidiscrimination laws. Public money should not be used to underwrite discrimination.

I believe the wall separating church and state should be absolute. If the program is worthy, then it is probably addressing a need that should be handled by the government anyway. Rather than shoving off a government responsibility to provide a safety net for the poor or the unemployed or the homeless to churches, the government should take responsibility.

If a social service program has been developed by a church as an embodiment of its tenets to feed the poor or to care for the downtrodden, then it should go all the way and finance that program completely. If the members of the church are unable to pay for the program itself, they can always seek the assistance of private foundations, which most do.

Or, the church can do what mine has: it can provide the seed money and the space to get the program up and running, and then when it has proven its success, it can remove itself from the picture, allowing the new program to access sources of funding otherwise closed to it.

Still, the editorial does point out the most glaring flaw in federally funded faith-based initiatives: the fact that tax dollars are being used to fund religious discrimination. For that I am grateful.

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

I suspect that this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune was intended to showcase the good works of the local churches with respect to the problems of increased homelessness among families. And there is nothing wrong with such a showcase: providing shelter and transportation to those who've lost their jobs and their homes is indeed a laudable effort, especially with winter approaching. That local religious groups have put together such programs fairly quickly is a testament to the principle of caritas. Still, given the expense involved, one wonders how long the groups can continue to provide this temporary safety net.

Churches are responding to the rise of homelessness in the Twin Cities by aligning with groups such as Families Moving Forward and sheltering families for three to four weeks over the course of a year.

It's a practical approach that takes advantage of churches' cheap, open space and abundant volunteers. But it also has critics, because organizers move families daily between churches and day centers and rotate them to new church shelters every week or two.

Minneapolis-based Families Moving Forward's network of 41 churches and one synagogue includes sites in Eagan, Shoreview and Wayzata. Transportation consumes one-tenth of its budget.

Shelter leaders acknowledged the logistical challenges, but said the model works because families have the day centers as their home bases.

The church networks also remain cheaper than most overnight shelters -- despite the transportation expenses - and foster meaningful interactions between the homeless families and their church hosts.

Ordinarily, these families would look to the municipal and state social services departments for assistance, but no state has been untouched by the economic meltdown. When joblessness rises, tax receipts fall, and governmental budgets start gushing red ink. The states and local governments simply cannot keep up. They can no longer promote the general welfare of their citizens.

The church projects are at best a temporary measure, and one that isn't always the most efficient way to do things, especially when it comes to the costs involved.

Among those concerned with the roving church model of shelter is Monica Nilsson, street outreach director for St. Stephen's Human Services in Minneapolis. She figures it costs up to $1,000 per month to shelter a family with the church model and up to $3,000 per month to place a family in a traditional shelter. Both cost more than vouchers families could use to afford housing.

"What they need is a two-bedroom apartment at $800 a month, which is cheaper than both options," she said.

Ms. Nilsson is, of course, correct. But where do those vouchers come from and who will fund them? As I said earlier, the local governments are stretched beyond their capacity as it is. Sooner or later, the churches will have run through whatever money their members can come up with to help the less fortunate. It's time for the federal government to step up and do the right thing.

First of all, unemployment is the key issue. A new, actually bold program of stimulus spending which will benefit workers rather than bankers needs to be put into place immediately. Our crumbling infrastructure would be a good place to start.

Next, an expansion of federal funding for affordable housing needs to be implemented on an emergency basis. Section 8 eligibility should be tinkered with so that more of the newly homeless can qualify immediately and be placed in those two bedroom apartments.

Finally, the federal share of state social service costs needs to be dramatically increased for the next four years so that state and local social service agencies can do the job they were designed to do.

And where does the federal government get the money for these programs? It borrows it while interest rates are so low as to be nonexistent. As people return to work and began paying taxes, some of those expenditures will be offset. Programs which benefit Wall Street and banks can be slashed, as can the corporate welfare inherent in all the subsidies they've garnered over the years.

It's our turn.

Good News

Back in May, I posted on the severe financial problems the gang intervention program known as Homeboy Industries faced. The program, run by Father Gregory Boyle, had run out of money and had just laid off all of its paid staff. Well, the program got a big boost yesterday from the Los Angeles Country Board of Supervisors.

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday awarded Homeboy Industries a $1.3-million contract, providing critically needed funding for the gang intervention program founded two decades ago by Father Gregory Boyle.

Earlier this year, crushing financial problems forced Homeboy officials to lay off most employees. The organization, which uses jobs to draw young people away from gangs, had seen a steep decline in charitable contributions since the economic downturn even as demand for its programs soared.

The county contract will make it possible for Homeboy to hire 20 job trainees and provide employment counseling, tattoo removal, mental health, legal and other services for 665 people. It targets probationers and other individuals ages 14 to 30 considered at risk of incarceration.

The contract, which is based on money already allocated in the County Budget, only runs through June because funding for any kind of social services is dicey for the new budget, given the state's problems, but it certainly gives new life to one of the most successful projects of its kind in the country. Thousands of probationers and at-risk kids have gone to Homeboy Industries and found ways to turn their lives around.

Father Gregory's formula is a simple one: get these young people jobs, and the programs focuses on ways to accomplish that. Some of them go to work at Homeboy Bakery or Homegirl Cafe. Some of them get training and tips and are matched with local companies. They get their gang tattoos removed, they get taught how to fill out employment applications, they even learn how to dress for an interview.

For those worried about taxpayers' money going to a religious organization, relax. Homeboy industries may have been founded by a Roman Catholic priest, but there are no religious requirements to get the services offered or to work on the project's staff. Father Gregory's "occupation" is coincidental.

What we should be worried about is that Father Gregory and his staff have been doing the County's job with respect to providing a smoother re-entry for the kids who have gotten into trouble. The probation department, for all sorts of reasons, hasn't been able to cope with parolees and probationers, much less kids who are at risk for becoming parolees and probationers down the line. It's about time the County paid for the services Homeboy Industries has been providing in its place.

Homeboy Industries isn't out of the woods yet, but it's close to getting back on its feet. For that, we should all be grateful, especially those of us who live in Los Angeles.

Homeboy Industries

I know this is a local story and probably won't mean much to most people outside the Los Angeles area, but it should. It's about a highly successful gang intervention program that provides services to 12,000 young men and women a year as they try to move away from their gang membership. It's about giving those young people hope by giving them a job. It's about a Roman Catholic priest, Father Gregory Boyle, who believes that these kids just need a break and some guidance to become productive and useful members of their community and who designed a program 18 years ago to do just that.

His plan was simple: put the kids to work in their own company. With the help of the business community, Father Gregory started up a couple of now very successful businesses. Homeboy Bakery (which makes some damned fine bread), Homegirl Cafe (which is located in the Homeboy Center near downtown (and which has a shot at opening a second site at LAX), and Homeboy Graphics (which is a silk screening operation).

Unfortunately, right now, Father Gregory's program is having the same financial problems that other charities are having as donations drop with the economy.

Here's what Tim Rutten had to say about Homeboy's problems:

Homeboy, which occupies a strikingly vibrant headquarters near Union Station, operates successful cafe, bakery and silk-screening businesses. It also provides job training, work, counseling, educational programs, legal assistance and tattoo removal to 12,000 young men and women formerly involved in gangs from all over Los Angeles County. It is what every social service organization purports, or aspires, to be: an effective program with a soul.

However, as the demands for its services have risen, Homeboy has been pinched by the general drop in charitable contributions that have followed from the grim economy. Since last fall, when the organization's problems surfaced, Boyle and his staff have been relying on a stream of small donations to cobble together their payroll. On Thursday, they had to lay off 330 of the 427 people they employed. Boyle and his staff will continue to work without pay, and the profitable cafe, bakery and silk-screen businesses will go on as usual.

Essentially, Homeboy needs $5 million in what amounts to bridge funding to carry it through until, as planned, the growing revenues from those successful businesses can support the rest of the program. This is an organization that has saved thousands of lives and demonstrably contributed not only to the lives of the young people it serves but also to our collective public safety. That's why Boyle and his work are supported strongly by both Police Chief Charlie Beck and Sheriff Lee Baca. What, moreover, is $5 million in a city that spends $25 million annually on gang intervention programs of dubious efficacy? What is it in a city with eight billionaires and millionaires by the thousands?

$5 million seems like a lot of money, but as Mr. Rutten points out, the City of Los Angeles pays out five times that amount each year in gang intervention programs, most of which don't work. Recently, a huge amount of money was raised by wealthy donors to keep the Museum of Modern Art afloat. The same thing happened when it looked like the landmark Hollywood sign was going to be torn down. Surely the lives of these young people are just as valuable as those things.

Tim Rutten certainly thinks so, because he decided to make a phone call to former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, a very wealthy man. Mr. Riordan, who made his fortune as a venture capitalist, enthusiastically took the call and promised to corral some of his friends to help make up the Homeboy shortfall. If he's successful, then the program will continue to operate and to grow. These kids will make it, and Los Angeles will be the better for it.

And that just might take the edge off my cynicism when it comes to the wealthy because it will mean that they finally realize that they too have to be good citizens, that they too should use a portion of their wealth to help their communities and their fellow citizens to grow and to prosper.

By the way, Tim Rutten: I usually object to a journalist, even a columnist, inserting himself into the news instead of just reporting it. Not this time. This time I am grateful for the practical display of humanity you showed.

Good on you.

Help!

Yesterday was an absolute disaster for me in all sorts of ways, and, no, I'm not just talking about the Coakley defeat in Massachusetts. I got drenched twice yesterday moving about the Los Angeles area on public transportation during the hellacious storm (the second in two days). When I finally got home and dried off, I opened the mail and found the announcement that my health insurance premiums went up even higher than I had anticipated and my deductible had increased two days before the start of my annual physical which is required for me to keep my life insurance. I wrote the check to the health insurer and completely wiped out my checking account.

I'm broke. Flat busted.

So I would appreciate a little help from my friends.

If you have some cash to spare, I would appreciate a donation. Just click on the Donate button.

Thanks. The cats and I would be grateful.

Right Move, Wrong Reason

Sometimes I just want to beat my head against the desk. The physical pain would hopefully distract me from the emotional pain brought on by the brazen crassness of my government. From today's Los Angeles Times:

In an attempt to ensure the flow of remittances to devastated Haiti, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday that the Obama administration would temporarily grant legal status to the tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who were living in the United States illegally before this week's earthquake.

But Napolitano emphasized that Haitians living in the island nation would not be eligible for temporary protected status, and would be repatriated if they attempted to enter the country, an implicit acknowledgment of the fear, thus far unrealized, that the earthquake could trigger a mass migration of Haitians to U.S. shores. [Emphasis added]

OK, so we'll let the illegals stay and allow them to find a job in an essentially jobless economy so they can send money back to Haiti for reconstruction so that we don't have to. That should make the illegals happy. It also should make Rush Limbaugh happy. Easy fix, that.

Shades of Barbara Bush!

Fortunately, people in Florida have a more realistic view, as the article points out:

Since the earthquake, the demand for the protected status had been taken up by a swelling chorus of advocates, including Haitian American activists, immigrant rights groups and conservative Cuban American lawmakers in Florida, such as Republican U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. ...

If Haitians do travel to Florida en masse, officials here say they are ready. They are already familiar with the realities of mass migration. ...

In Miami-Dade County this week, officials held numerous meetings to tweak what is officially called the "Change in Caribbean Government Plan" to provide medical aid, screening and temporary housing to large numbers of Haitians.

The county school district has worked up a plan that would include opening three large refugee acceptance centers and converting a district-owned hospital building to a live-in center for as many as 500 refugee children. Separately, the Archdiocese of Miami has proposed establishing a program to bring large numbers of Haitian orphans to the area.

Apparently Floridians, including Rep. Lincold Diaz-Balart, remember Emma Lazarus and her famous sonnet. Unfortunately, apparently the Obama administration does not. Here's a reminder for them.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


[Note: the linked LAT article is worth visiting for several reasons, not the least of which is the haunting photograph by Carolyn Cole which accompanies it.]

Don't Just Sit There ...

Do something and do it now.

Some folks for whom I have enormous respect are going through a nightmare and need some help. I know that many of us, if not most, are going through some rough patches right now and money is tight. Still, if you are able to help NTodd, Ericka, and Sam, go visit NTodd's blog (yes, he actually has a blog), read the story, and then click on the paypal link he included.

Do it.

Thank you.