PAMPERED, SPOILED AMERICANS WANT IT BOTH WAYS
By Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration

Let’s limit all Americans to 1 car per family, 1 TV, 1 radio, 1 computer, 1 hand pushed lawn mower. Let’s take away their zoned heating and cooling, their George Foreman grills, crock pots, microwaves, whirlpool tubs, electric hedge trimmers, gas operated lawn mowers and riding mowers and all their other labor saving devices. To do this would greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

President Barack Obama has advocated some limited off shore drilling and now there’s mass hysteria. What about our green economy that he ran on? What about solar and wind power?
What about it? If we pampered and spoiled Americans were willing to give up our excessive toys and outward displays of materialism, we could manage with just solar and wind power.

I can remember back in the ‘30’s, we bought ice from the ice man, we had coal chutes, we had one radio which we all gathered around. We banked the coal heated stove at night in order to keep the home warm throughout the night and so we wouldn’t rise in a cold home. We had rub boards to clean collars and stubborn places when we washed our clothing by hand. It took a long time to prepare dinner because there were no microwaves, crock pots or electric can openers. We popped popcorn on top of the coal stove. We kept our food fresh by putting a big chunk of ice in the ice box. We opened cans with hand held openers. We walked to the corner grocery or mom and pop store. We wore shoes until they were beginning to twist and then we’d take them to the shoe shop to have new heels or half soles put on them. We opened our windows to get fresh, sometimes cool air. We bathed in a cast iron tub sometimes with legs and feet on it. Few people owned cars, thus the air was not polluted. By the way, we entertained ourselves by playing board games or the family sat around sharing experiences. We didn’t have to worry about drunk drivers because most drunks did not have cars.

I ask Americans how many want to go back to the “good old days” when life was simpler and labor was supplied by elbow grease.

As I see it, President Obama is being a pragmatist and a realist. We are living in different times. Life has changed as we’ve become more “progressive.” With this progress, we have become lazy, spoiled and materialistic. This is not the President’s fault. He is merely responding to the times and the demands and expectations that we Americans require in order to live the “good life.”

Air travel was rare back in the ‘30’s. Now we have executives and even private citizens who have their own private jets. We did a lot of walking or rode our one speed bikes propelled by our pedal power. We didn’t see a lot of privately owned motorcycles. Though we had some buses which used gasoline, we also had packed streetcars which were electrically powered. We didn’t have power drills, we used screw drivers and hammers and nails hammered in by hand.

Now I like my creature comforts as well as the next American; but, I understand I can’t have it both ways. We can’t rely totally on fossil fuels. We need the potpourri of nuclear, solar, wind, and fossil fuel in order to meet the demand of our self aggrandized lifestyle. We watch what the Joneses are doing and then try to outdo them. The bigger our car the more it satisfies our bigger egos.

I think if we all take a deep breath, relax and support our President in his efforts to right a lot of wrongs, many of which were created before he was born, we will all do well. Instead of cutting off our noses to spite our faces based on some warped sense of injustice, we should all settle down, count our blessings and become a part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. We need to unite as Americans, put aside our petty and personal differences and all pull together for the good of our country, and then we can all be participants in creating a more perfect union.

Stop whining, Americans. Take the scowls off your faces. Tamper down your fiery rhetoric. Embrace democracy and thank the Native Americans who preserved this land of abundance where we can all have a share of the American dream.

A Gift for All Seasons: Being a Citizen: the Rights and responsibilities Thereof

We live in an era of materialism and conspicuous consumption where the values of Americans of all classes and ethnic groups are to consume everything in record numbers. We eat fast. We move fast. We have great expectations and demands that stress out the average person and shorten the quality of life, leaving us speechless and gasping for air.

In an era that prides itself so much on the bottom line, results oriented demands, statistics and outcomes it’s surprising that we are still unable to adequately count the citizens when the census or the point in time come around. And even with HMIS the Homeless management information system, we bicker over protocol and rapid data entry and whether these statistics are accurate.

Congress demands that we count and yet do we? I have never been counted in the census, not in forty years, since I was an adult and I was a census enumerator and a member of the citizen count committee for the city and county of Denver.

I am curious how people feel about the startling revelation that most of the indigent are never counted and not simply for this process that has occurred ever since 1890?

What do we think about people who have had enough of American expectations of materialism and simply want to be left alone like a hermit living in a cave? Many homeless people are uncomfortable being scrutinized and know when to avoid the places where the enumerators and yes, the out reach workers are lurking and simply avoid the process. I do not think that we are unique here in Denver.

I was reading an article about the matter in New York City where they claim that they know in Common Ground every single person who is homeless. I think that they mean to say that they know every single person who they’ve counted shift by shift, who is visible. However most of the homeless are not readily available and do not want to be counted, as I was telling the former executive director of the United States Interagency Council, ten years ago, when the HMIS mantra was first proposed.

What matters to most indigent people is being safe, someone listening to them, a place that their stuff will not be bothered, a way to get out of the elements, a place that their clan can protect them when it is harsh and they feel overwhelmed by life’s adversity. We kid ourselves about how effective we’re even though HUD named the Denver’s Road Home as the Model City Program for relieving the stress of being insecure there is a lot of neglect that goes far beyond the losses of property and self worth.

The People’s Leadership Council offers a real solution to this dilemma in that we are creating a space that homeless people can feel at ease and talk, listen and be citizens. Our aspirations are modest, to listen and thereby to change the perception that you do not count. I know a person on the street with a sign sketched that says, “I am human.” We must have a clear and unequivocal expectation that everyone counts and not simply for the point in time or for the momentary funding proposal that needs Annual Homeless Assessment Reports to substantiate Progress.

This Friday we are meeting throughout the metro region and I am speaking about the gift of the homeless to the communities throughout the region. I twill be at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds from 9 to 1 and I hope that you will make it a priority on this furlough day to come and join us.

On April 7 at El Centro at 2260 California St at 12:30 the People’ Leadership Council is meeting to discuss the upcoming panel we are doing on diversity at the University of Denver at 10 a.m. in room 310 at Sturm Hall. It is entitled, ironically,

“Building Community Inside – Out Through Listening,” won’t you register and come and spread the word that we want to be counted?

On April 23, 1993 Cesar Estrada Chavez, 66, Union Organizer For Migrant Worker's Rights Died
This article was written originally by Robert Lindsey in the New York Times and is modified and augmented by Randle Loeb to reflect the changes that have been created by the spirit of a champion of the rights established in the Constitution to all who dwell on these shores.
Cesar Estrada Chavez was born On an Arizona farm on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Ariz., the second of five children of Juana and Librado Chavez. His father's parents migrated from Mexico in 1880.
His early years were spent on the family's 160-acre farm. But in the seventh year of the Depression, when he was 10, the family fell behind on mortgage payments and were evicted.
Along with thousands of other families in the Southwest, they sought refuge in California. They picked carrots, cotton, grapes in arid valleys, following the sun in search of the next harvest and the next camp owned by the growers.
Mr. Chavez never graduated from high school. He attended 65 elementary schools "for a day, a week or a few months."
Mr. Chavez, who lived in Keene, Calif., was in Arizona on union business. He died in his sleep.
Blending the nonviolent resistance of Gandhi with the organizational skills of Saul Alinsky, Mr. Chavez captured worldwide attention in the 1960's. Leading a battle to unionize the fields and orchards of California, boycotting grapes was a rallying point for the American citizen.
Mr. Chavez was described by Robert F. Kennedy as "one of the heroic figures of our time," near the time of Robert Kennedy's assassination. Cesar Chavez did more to improve the lives of migrant farm workers than anyone in his generation.
Fighting growers and shippers who for generations had defeated efforts to unionize field workers, and later fighting rival unionists, Mr. Chavez for the first time brought stability and security to migrant workers because he represented hope and a glimmer of economic justice for Latino families.
In 1975 he California Legislature passed the nation's first collective bargaining act outside Hawaii for farm workers, who were excluded from Federal labor law protection. "For the first time," Mr. Chavez said "the farm worker got some power." "For many years I was a farm worker, a migratory worker, it's just a matter of trying to even the score."
Cesar Chavez failed to realize his dream of forging a nationwide organization because White dominated labor unions and bosses organized to defeat his efforts among the Chicano people. American farm workers continue to toil for low wages, without job security, vulnerable to exploitation and at the whim of the corporate business establishment. California failed to translate the early triumphs of La Causa into a viable labor organization with economic and social justice for all citizens.
The union that Mr. Chavez founded, the United Farm Workers of America was unable to organize more than twenty percent of California's 200,000 farm workers. Tactics that Cesar Chavez effectively initiated in the 1960's and early 70's -- strikes and boycotts, fasting and the long march were undermined by the powerful cartel of agricultural industries. The United Farm Workers Union was regarded as a novelty among the liberal, middle class of the nation and then forgotten by many early supporters.
Cesar Estrada Chavez's accomplishments included forming the union of farm workers in California averaging less than $1.50 an hour. They had no fringe benefits, no seniority rights and no standing to challenge abuses by employers or exploitative labor contractors and thus, establishing forever the history of the Latinos and Chicanos as leaders of their destiny as equal citizens.
Unionization brought sharp pay increases. For the first time, migrant workers were eligible for medical insurance, employer-paid pensions, unemployment insurance, and they had the means to challenge employer abuses. The union's impact extended far beyond its membership. The threat of unionization by Mr. Chavez raised agricultural wages throughout California.
Beginning with the Industrial Workers of the World at the turn of the century, unions tried for decades to organize immigrant unskilled workers, first Chinese, then Japanese and later Filipinos and Mexican-Americans, on whom California growers depended. Field hands were vulnerable to the competition of other poor migrants seeking work, and were fighting not only powerful growers, but also the police and government officials.
In 1939 Mr. Chavez's family settled in San Jose. His father became active in a successful effort to organize workers at a dried-fruit packing plant, giving Mr. Chavez his first glimpse of workers taking collective action.
After World War II, in which he served two years in the Navy, Mr. Chavez resumed his life as a migrant. He married Helen Fabela in Delano, which he later made famous far beyond its dusty corner of the San Joaquin Valley.
Besides his wife he's survived by eight children, 27 grandchildren, a great-grandchild, three brothers and two sisters.
Mr. Alinsky sent an aide to recruit potential leaders, and among the first people he met was Mr. Chavez, then working in a San Jose apricot orchard.
Mr. Chavez joined Mr. Alinsky's Community Service Organization, registering Mexican-Americans to vote and helping them deal with government agencies. Later Cesar Chavez criticized the organization as dominated by non-Hispanic liberals, and in 1958 he quit, went to Delano and formed the National Farm Workers Association.
By 1965 Mr. Chavez organized 1,700 families and persuaded two growers to raise wages moderately. His fledging union was poised for a major strike. But 800 workers in a virtually moribund A.F.L.-C.I.O. group, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, struck grape growers in Delano, and some of the members of his group demanded to join the strike.
That was the beginning of five years of La Huelga in which Cesar Chavez became familiar to people in much of the world as he battled the economic power of the farmers and corporations in the San Joaquin Valley.
With its charismatic leader, song-filled meetings and the fundamental appeal of its struggle, depicted as a downtrodden minority battling an exploitative oligopoly, Mr. Chavez's organization reminded many old-timers of the industrial battles that they had waged generations earlier.
Cesar Chavez showed humility that, with his shyness, small stature, and piercing dark eyes gave him the image of David taking on the Goliaths of agriculture.
Mr. Chavez's style was deeply religious. His life was dedicated to bettering the lives of the exploited farm workers. He was a vegetarian, and his weekly salary of $5 was a vow of poverty. Articles about him often spoke of his "saintly" and even "messianic" qualities.
Priests and nuns, college students and unionists from around the country marched with Mr. Chavez. Supporters sent money for La Causa. Most of the farm workers who enlisted had meager resources and were asked to pay only the dues they could afford, often only a few cents a month.
Borrowing from Gandhi, Mr. Chavez sometimes went on fasts or invited arrest to call attention to his battle with the growers.
With music and singing and hundreds of fluttering flags bearing the union's symbol of a black eagle on a field of red, union rallies were filled with fervor. Mr. Chavez arrived late at the rallies, appearing to a roar of approval after a musical group had played and other speakers had addressed the crowds.
In 1968 he began his most visible campaign, urging Americans not to buy table grapes produced in the San Joaquin Valley until growers agreed to union contracts. The boycott proved a huge success. A public opinion poll found that 17 million Americans had stopped buying grapes because of the boycott. My family were among the members of the coalition.
On July 30, 1970, after losing millions of dollars, growers agreed to sign. It was probably the high point in the union's history.
More successful boycotts and organizing successes followed, but soon many of the largest growers, in an effort to stave off Mr. Chavez's union, invited the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to organize their workers. Mr. Chavez complained that the teamsters were signing "sweetheart contracts," and before long his hard-won gains in Delano were betrayed by coercive practices of industry.
Growers charged that the United Farm Workers was poorly run and undependable, signed with the teamsters. But two things kept his dream alive: First, the teamsters' leaders, smarting from charges of corruption, made a truce.
Second, Edmund G. Brown Jr., a Democrat who had marched with the farm workers before his election as Governor in 1974, won adoption of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Act, a landmark bill establishing collective bargaining for farm workers and granting the union concessions. Among these concessions was a "good standing clause," which in effect permitted union leaders to deny work in the fields to any worker who challenged their decisions.
The teamsters virtually abandoned the fight against Mr. Chavez in 1977. In the years that followed, the United Farm Workers signed occasional contracts with growers but never attained the dominance that Mr. Chavez envisioned. A decade after the Delano strike, fewer than ten percent of the grapes in that community were harvested by union's members.
Cesar Chavez befriended Charles Dederich, the founder of Synanon, a drug rehabilitation organization.
After Mr. Brown's departure from the governorship in 1983, Mr. Chavez battled with the Republican administration of George Deukmejian, whose campaign was backed by the growers. In 1983, Mr. Chavez, expressing determination to recapture the union's momentum, revived the use of the boycott, directed at nonunion table grapes and Salinas Valley lettuce.
When Cesar Estrada Chavez died in 1993 he was clear in his message to all citizens of this country: you are the ones with power and your will must be heard. We are granted a great legacy in the grace and dignity of this spiritual leader of the people.

HUD rates Denver a national model for helping homeless

By Colleen O'Connor
The Denver Post
Posted: 03/26/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

Denver is a national model for helping the homeless get better access to mainstream services like Medicaid and food stamps, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"Denver is among those places around the country that do a pretty darn good job," said HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan.

Six other cities were included in the 287-page study: Albany, N.Y.; Albuquerque; Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Norfolk, Va.; Portland, Maine; and Pittsburgh-Allegheny County, Pa.

"We wanted to study these places that do it very well, even if they experience some obstacles, and all of them are," Sullivan said. "By identifying where it's being done right, we hope we can export (the solutions) elsewhere, so others can replicate them."

The study examined how the communities responded to HUD's 2000 policy shift to emphasize providing housing over services.

But the data collection for the study was finished before the financial crash of 2008, and some of the programs lauded in the HUD study no longer exist, such as the Stout Street Mobile Medical Clinic.

This February, to help stem the loss of $3.4 million in state funding, the van that provided care on the streets and at shelters was shut down.

"That's my only caution," said Jamie van Leeuwen, director of Denver's Road Home, about the gap between when the study was conducted and released. "We're even being cautious about the 2009 point-in-time survey because so much happened between 2007 and 2009 in terms of the economy."

The point-in-time survey counts the number of homeless on one day each year.

What has not changed, however, is the collaborative approach to the problem.

"The city has taken on significant responsibilities surrounding the elimination of homelessness while also bringing in more private service providers, including those that are faith-based, and raising a substantial amount of private funding," the report said.

A partnership with the Mile High United Way, which allowed Denver's Road Home to achieve its fundraising goal of $46.1 million in the first four years of the plan, is also emphasized in the study.

Denver also has "prevalent" programs to make sure that homeless people receive benefits, according to the study. Among the best examples was the Benefit Acquisition and Retention Team run by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

It's "one of the most successful teams" for getting homeless people access to programs such as Aid to the Needy Disabled, Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance, the report said.

"Using a total of 4.5 full-time case managers to process claims, the BART (Benefit Acquisition) team members are experts at putting together disability applications," it said.

In general, the study found that the umbrella structure of Denver's Road Home makes it "a strong mechanism for expanding, changing and smoothing access to mainstream benefits, with its ability to raise funds in the private sector, bring the provider community together, and advocate for policy changes."

Colleen O'Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com

HUD NEWS
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Shaun Donovan, Secretary
Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DC 20410

HUD No. 10-055 FOR RELEASE
Brian Sullivan Thursday
(202) 708-0685 March 25, 2010
http://www.hud.gov/news/index.cfm

HUD RELEASES GROUNDBREAKING STUDY ON COSTS OF FIRST-TIME HOMELESSNESS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES
Two additional studies look at life after transitional housing and access to mainstream benefits

WASHINGTON - When an individual or a family becomes homeless for the first time, the cost of providing them housing and services can vary widely, from $581 a month for an individual's stay in an emergency shelter in Des Moines, Iowa to as much as $3,530 for a family's monthly stay in emergency shelter in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today released three studies on the cost of 'first-time' homelessness; life after transitional housing for homeless families; and strategies for improving access to mainstream benefits programs.

HUD's cost study is the most comprehensive research on the price tag associated with first-time homelessness and creates a foundation to compare the costs of various homeless interventions. Taken together, HUD's three studies released today will inform policy discussions on what are the most effective strategies for assisting homeless persons and families in the future.

"These studies expand our knowledge of the true costs of homelessness and raises other questions that go far beyond dollars and cents," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Now we need to have a serious discussion over what strategies are not only most cost effective, but how we can help individuals and families from falling into homelessness in the first place."

HUD's study, Costs Associated with First-Time Homelessness for Families and Individuals, examines how much it costs to house and serve nearly 9,000 individuals and families in six areas of the country. The report studies the cost of first-time homelessness among individuals in Des Moines, Iowa; Houston, Texas; and Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, the Department looked at the cost of first-time family homelessness in Washington, DC; Houston, Texas; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and a large area of upstate South Carolina.

HUD is currently investing $1.5 billion in funding through the Recovery Act's Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless and help those who are experiencing homelessness to be quickly re-housed and stabilized.

This report reveals that most of those individuals and families studied experience homelessness only once or twice and use emergency shelter for a limited period of time at fairly low cost. However, HUD also found that some of these households experience longer periods of homelessness and use more expensive programs. While overnight emergency shelter for individuals have the lowest costs, these shelters offer the fewest services in the least private settings and are often open only during evening hours. By contrast, transitional housing is the most expensive model for individuals, frequently offering more privacy and a comprehensive range of on-site services.

HUD's cost study found:
Average costs for individuals are much lower than for families, with overnight stays at an emergency shelter for individuals having the lowest daily costs;
For individuals, transitional housing proves more expensive than permanent supportive housing largely because services for transitional housing were usually offered directly by on-site staff than by mainstream service providers;
For families, emergency shelters are usually equally or more expensive than transitional and permanent supportive housing because family shelters often offer 24-hour access and private units;
In the three sample areas studied, first-time homeless individuals were predominantly male averaging between 39-41 years old; and
Female individuals had fewer stays, but used homeless programs 74 percent longer than their male counterparts.

Average Monthly Cost by Homeless Program Type

Individual Sites
Emergency Shelter
Transitional Housing
Permanent Supportive Housing
Des Moines
$581
$1,386
$537
Jacksonville
$799
$870
$882
Houston
$968
$1,654
$966
Family Sites

Houston
$1,391
$3,340
$799
Kalamazoo
$1,614
$813
$881
Upstate S.C.
$2,269
$1,209
$661
Washington, DC
$3,530
$2,170
$1,251

HUD also released two additional homeless studies today:

Life after Transitional Housing for Homeless Families

This study follows 195 families in 36 transitional housing programs in five communities for three, six and 12 months after leaving the program. Given the significant investment HUD makes in transitional housing programs, and in light of the program's costs mentioned above, it is important to understand the effectiveness of these programs. The five study communities were Cleveland/Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Houston and Harris and Benton Counties, Texas; San Diego City and County, California; and Seattle/King County, Washington. Among the study's findings:
Participants in smaller transitional housing programs were more likely to have their own place to live after moveout and more likely to live with the same household members at the beginning and end of the follow-up year. Participants in larger programs experience higher levels of educational attainment at moveout.
In some respects, longer stays in transitional housing produced important benefits including higher levels of educational attainment and employment and a greater likelihood of continued employment during the follow-up year. Families spending more months in transitional housing were significantly more likely to have a place of their own for an entire year after leaving the program.
While transitional housing programs produced increasingly positive outcomes for families with longer stays, HUD found the number of barriers facing families did not impact outcomes. Given the significant costs associated with service-intensive transitional housing programs, HUD's report brings into question whether this housing model is the most appropriate intervention for those families who do not have significant barriers to housing.

Strategies for Improving Homeless People's Access to Mainstream Benefits and Services

HUD studied seven communities (Albany/Albany Co., NY; Albuquerque, NM; Metropolitan Denver; Miami-Dade Co., FL; Norfolk, VA; Portland, ME; and Pittsburgh/Allegheny Co., PA) to document how communities mobilized to improve homeless people's access to mainstream benefits and services in light of HUD's goal of dedicating a larger portion of HUD homeless assistance funding to housing.

Communities that experienced the greatest success had a strong central organization intent upon improving access of homeless individuals and families to mainstream service. Typically, communities were successful at reducing structural barriers to benefits, such as physical access, complexity and length of application processes, and rules for documenting eligibility. In addition, the study finds evidence that people exiting HUD-funded programs were likely to be connected to mainstream benefits at rates that exceeded national rates for 2007. These communities had the most success enrolling persons and families for food stamps and General Assistance. However, communities struggled with overcoming barriers that were beyond their control, such as eligibility requirements of programs, such as TANF and Medicaid, and capacity barriers, such as an insufficient number of slots available in mainstream treatment programs for substance abuse or mental health services.
###

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to sustaining homeownership; creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans; and supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development and enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

A Thief is a Thief - Even When it's the U.S. Postal Service

This article started out as a letter to Inspector General David C. Williams of the United States Postal Service. Then it occurred to me that the travesty of justice that's described below is much too serious to be dealt with as a single incident. This is a growing and systemic issue that is so blatant and egregious that I'm sure the OIG is well aware of it. It is also an issue that is such a looming threat to the American people that I decided it needed to be dragged into the light of day.

I recently found out that a friend of mine was the victim of repeated instances of forced labor and time fraud committed by her manager in the U.S. Postal Service. When I first became aware of it I was shocked, but not alarmed. I thought I could simply contact the OIG's office and have it, and the manager involved, taken care of. I was certain that the OIG would be anxious to investigate the matter and get the offending culprit out of their midst. But to my amazement it not only took two reports, but over a month before I was even contacted on the matter.

Then when I finally was contacted and explained to the OIG inspector, Special Agent Reid Robbins, that a postal manager, Marcie Luna, was forcing an employee to work between four and six hours a day without pay, and was committing fraud by falsifying a government document and changing the employee's official clock rings to reflect a three (3) hour lunch that the employee wasn't permitted to take, I was essentially met with a yawn.

"And who are you? How do you know this employee?" Then after we finally got past what felt like an interrogation to determine whether or not I had a right to NOT mind my own business, Agent Robbins went on to explain that the OIG's office generally doesn't investigate time issues - which was a blatant lie (they just don't investigate it when the government is doing the stealing).

Then after giving the matter further thought, I began to ask myself, "What kind of crime fighting organization doesn't fight crime?" It is my understanding that the Postal Inspection Service investigate external crimes against the postal service, and the Office of Inspector General investigate internal crimes within the postal service. So if the OIG doesn't investigate the intimidation and coercion necessary to force an employee to work six hours a day for free, or the falsification of documents necessary to steal an employee's wages, the OIG must not consider employee abuse a crime.

So I attempted to contact Agent Robbins at the number he provided, but he failed to return my calls, even after six attempts. So I decided to leave a message on his voice mail asking him the following questions: 1) Whose office would handle the matter if the situation was reversed, and the employee worked only eight hours and falsified her time to be paid for twelve? 2). Whose office would handle the falsification of government documents? And finally, is he going to investigate the matter, and will anyone be held accountable for the commission of this crime?

I have yet to receive a response.

But it doesn't stop there. The next day the employee involved called to advise me that Agent Robbins had contacted her. She went on to say that he seemed to be more interested in how she knew me than he was the crime that had been committed against her. She also said his tone was aggressive and intimidating, and he told her that when she accepted the job of acting supervisor, working overtime without pay came with the job - another blatant lie.

The National Association of Postal Supervisors advised me that a certified supervisor can be required to work a maximum of 30 minutes without pay (in emergencies), 204Bs (acting supervisors) who are covered under various craft employee contracts must be paid for every minute they work. We know this information to be accurate because if it wasn't, it wouldn't have been necessary for the manager to falsify government documents to achieve her objective, to rob the employee.

But even worse than giving the employee inaccurate information, and failing to investigate the complaint, Agent Robbins also revealed both the complaint, and the nature of the complaint to postal management, and that's supposed to be confidential information.

As a direct result, this highly productive employee who has held the same position for over twenty-one years - longer in the same position than any other supervisor, manager, or postmaster in the Los Angeles district - has been demoted by a manager who didn't even entered the postal service until six years after the employee was a productive supervisor. And even worse, while the manager, Ms. Marcie Luna, who had recently been demoted from area manager herself, was informing the employee of her demotion, she allegedly commented to the employee, "I just want you to see how it feels when the postal service doesn't appreciate all that you've done for them."

What!!? Is this manager actually saying that she wants the employee to suffer because she feels that she's suffered an injustice? How was the employee responsible for the manager's demotion?

In the interest of full disclosure, I became personally (but objectively) involved in this matter because I know it to be particularly egregious based on my personal knowledge of the employee involved. It also speaks directly to an issue that I've been addressing in many columns and is of particular interest to me - the negative impact of America's new business model on the middle class ( http://wattree .blogspot .com/2009/12/role-of-poor-minorities-and-middle.html). So while admittedly, I know the subject of this piece personally, the facts in this case alone clearly demonstrate the business community's full-throated assault on the America middle class.

The character of the manager and agencies mandated to protect the rights of the employee is revealed through the facts in this case, but what about the character of the employee?

Employee Background

I became involved in this case when the employee, Ms. Joann Snow, was acting unusually depressed. I became immediately concerned because I've known her for over twenty-five years, and what makes her most unique WAS her bubbly, Life's-a-bowl-of-cherries-type personality. Everybody loves her - especially in her workplace. Her superiors depended upon her because of her can-do, A type personality, and her subordinates would seek her out for council, knowing she could be depended upon to do the right thing (making sure they were properly paid, for example, or doing battle on their behalf with their immediate supervisors over injustices). In addition, she would donate her vacation leave every year to employees who became ill and ran out of sick leave, because she never found the time to take a vacation herself.

This woman was so highly depended upon by her superiors and dedicated to her job that for years she was working seven days a week just to cover their backs against any oversights. And since she had been in her current position for over twenty-one years - again, probably longer in one position than any other supervisor, manger or postmaster in the United States Postal Service's Los Angeles district - when the administrators needed any kind of information, or any issue addressed, in many cases they wouldn't bother with the station manager - those people would come and go - they'd wait until after 11:00 a.m. when Ms. Snow arrived so they could address the issue with her.

At this writing Ms Snow has voluntarily postponed a long needed vacation in order to train her own replacement so the postal service and the people they serve won't be negatively impacted by her departure. My response to that was to ask her if she was insane - but then, she lives by a different code of moral responsibility than I do.

So I think that answers the question of why our government, and particularly the postal service, is so dysfunctional. It's clear - because the wrong people are in positions of responsibility.

OIG Response

Agent Robbins handled this matter atrociously - both unprofessionally, and unethically. He also made a serious personal error. He made the mistake of thinking I was simply an employee reporting an injustice committed against a friend, which is partially true - I'm a former employee reporting an injustice committed against a friend. But I'm also a journalist.

I write a political column for several publications across the country, including the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Black Star News in New York, two of the most prestigious publications serving the Black community in the country. I'm also a staff writer for Veterans Today, a publication whose reach spans the globe. VT will be particularly interested in this case, because not only does government corruption and the assault on the middle class have a negative impact on returning veterans, but Ms. Snow's only son is a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. Thus, while he's off defending this nation, his very own government is both robbing and abusing his single mother who he's left behind at home.

So I intend to do my very best to put both the postal service, and the indifference of the OIG's office, on severe blast across this country. I also intend to move hell and Earth to see to it that this issue ends up on President Obama's desk, because this sort of institutional crime is not representative of America. Both of these United States government agencies are guilty of reckless and unconscionable behavior. They are both also guilty of failing to carrying out their respective mandates to protect the rights of the American people - especially our right not to be subjected to slave labor.

And let their be no doubt about it - this is not just an isolated attack against one postal employee. This is an institutional attack on the American middle class. It is in direct response to a new business model brought on by a global economy and the new world order. So if we fail to standup as a nation and fight back, it will eventially come knocking at all of our doors.

Part two of this series will address the negative impact that this criminal behavior is having on the postal service's ability to deliver the mail.

TO ALL POSTAL EMPLOYEES

If you are aware of any instances of time fraud being committed by the postal service, please contact me at Ewattree@Gmail.com. Giving in to fear and intimidation is not an option, because it's only going to get worse. It's time to bring this institutionalized crime against poor and middle class workers to an end. We must shine the light of day on this covert and increasingly routine business practice. As you know, it's been going on for years, and this is your chance to do something about it.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree .blogspot .com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

- NEW YORK/REGION -

Times Square's Homeless Holdout, Not Budging
By JULIE BOSMAN
Nonprofit workers say the man known as Heavy is the last
person living on the streets of Times Square.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/nyregion/30heavy.html?th&emc=th

Commentary by Randle Loeb, The People's Leadership Council
www.peoplesleadershipcouncil.org

"Tim Marx executive director and Roseanne Haggerty founder of Common Ground think that they have this man who they name, Heavy,” figured out. They are thinking of having an out reach worker follow him around all day, because their MISSION is to have the last homeless person in Mid-town Manhattan come inside and indeed, Roseanne suggests that he has come inside. Then she says that his being out there is a fascinating experience for the last person who is chronically homeless on the street there in “her” turf. Tim Marx on the other hand is saying that the woman who he calls, “Mama,” is irresponsible in some way because people like her have provided comfort, blankets, clothes, food, coffee, and most importantly community for this person for decades.

Let’s analyze what we know, which is minimal about this man’s life. He is present and has a purpose outside. All of us need to belong and be respected, as my son Lael puts it, “feel me.”

I think one can safely say that this man is felt and understood. He feels that he belongs. Who can say when it is time to come in and rest, take off your shoes and feel at ease closing your own door? For many people who are homeless the community that they experience in their world of soup kitchens, street connections and safety is enough and they are not ready and in many cases interested in coming inside. This is not a measure of their lack of anything other than for the time being this is not their choice. I see many people every day that will find themselves inside and say, “I cannot stand being here.” “Where my friends, my connections, and my place are is with my family.”

What business is it for the commerce and industry to decide how and when a person is complying with the public good? What is troubling are the glib responses to a complex social issue of trust and belonging that cuts through the compassion of social services and the public’s need for people to be protected. In Geel in Holland, a town embraces its transient and suffering with housing in each person’s home and in the businesses by providing a safe place and a sanctuary for all who come to share their community. When a caretaker provider dies another family member steps in and holds the person as a sacred trust. There are no strings attached to this commitment and no lack of respect and dignity for their vulnerable neighbors. Everyone finds a way to care for the person just as with the man in New York’s Time Square.

We need to think about this the next time we see a person like the one described in Julie’s article below and tap into our reservoir of caring for our neighbor as ourselves. Tim and Roseanne you would not be in business if the commonweal embraced everyone. In my mind the community is where my family is and where I am accepted. It is also where we feel we have a place and a purpose. Who among us is as loved and cherished as the people who we engage daily who remind us that we all are the same."

“One Last Homeless Holdout in Times Square” New York Times March 29, 2010 By Julie Bosman

As long as there have been homeless people sleeping in Times Square, there have been social workers and city officials trying to persuade them to leave.
Enlarge This Image

Michael Appleton for The New York Times
The homeless man Heavy slept in a cardboard box on Sunday as a worker from the Times Square Alliance swept 48th Street.
In the past, the homeless were offered a free ride to one of the city’s warehouselike shelters. These days, workers for nonprofit groups help people move into apartments, keeping track as the number of the chronically homeless in Times Square goes down.
According to their records, by 2005, there were only 55. Last summer, it was down to 7.
Now there is one.
His name is Heavy, and he has lived on the streets of Times Square for decades. Day after day, he has politely declined offers of housing, explaining that he is a protector of the neighborhood and cannot possibly leave, the workers who visit him every day said.
Yet they are determined to get through to Heavy, the last homeless holdout in Times Square.
“I just have this dream that all of a sudden something will snap, and he’ll say, ‘I’d love to have housing,’ ” said Amie Pospisil, an associate director at Common Ground Community, a nonprofit organization that conducts street outreach. “I don’t rule out that it could happen.”
Little is known about Heavy, even his full name. Heavy is a nickname, part of his last name, a fact he surrendered after more than a year of daily visits from workers. He declined to be interviewed.
According to neighbors and social workers, Heavy is a gentle presence, a quiet man who does not harass passers-by or panhandle aggressively. They say he may be mentally ill, as many of the chronically homeless are. An employee in a deli on Eighth Avenue said that he usually gave Heavy a few pieces of bread at lunchtime. Neighbors give him hot coffee, loose change, and warm clothing in winter.
“He is a sweetheart,” said an 82-year-old woman who gave her name as Nanny and stopped to talk near her home on 48th Street, where she has lived for 44 years. “He sees me coming and says, ‘Hi, Mommy,’ and I say, ‘Hi, honey.’ And I give him his quarter, and I go on with my business.”
The most recent annual estimate of the number of homeless people sleeping on the streets of New York showed an increase, but Times Square has been an exception.
The exact count of homeless people in and around the area on any given day can be subject to wanderings, the time of year, even the weather. But for years, outreach workers have done rigorous, round-the-clock counts of the people who are sleeping there every night, and they are confident they know who is there and who is not.
Heavy is the last member of what they called the Times Square Seven, the only homeless people remaining last summer out of the dozens they had been placing in housing for years. Of the seven, three men were regularly sleeping on the steps of churches.
All of them had been homeless for a long time — on average, 17 years.
One by one, from last September to January, the men were persuaded to accept housing. Except Heavy.
“I think it’s fair to say that we gave all seven people the same attention and effort,” Ms. Pospisil said. “Heavy is still there.”
The outreach teams had long since memorized his location and his habits. For a long stretch, he had been camped out on Seventh Avenue, until a city sanitation crew disposed of his belongings. Then he found a new spot nearby, under the fire escape of a theater. Now he is usually seen around the corner of 48th Street and Seventh Avenue, a block or two from the heart of Times Square.
By day, Heavy is typically seen wearing a red knit cap, sipping coffee and smoking a cigarette, sitting on a makeshift chair near his black and red suitcase. At night, outreach workers often find him nestled in a thin cardboard box, near the scaffolding of a building under construction.
Heavy was far from alone on the streets of Times Square in the 1990s, when he began sleeping there frequently in the midst of a roiling mess of drug dealing, prostitution and crime.
“Times Square has always been this signpost for whatever’s going on in New York City, for good or ill, and when there was a very heavy homeless population, it all contributed to a larger perception that New York City had lost control of the public realm,” said Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Alliance. “I think there was a time at the very beginning of the homelessness issue when it was like, let’s squeeze the balloon and get them out of the way.”
But tactics changed. Nonprofit groups began sharing information about the homeless people who were anchored in Times Square, gathering names, ages, medical conditions and the personal issues that might be keeping them homeless.
The street outreach teams from Common Ground and the Goddard Riverside Community Center, both nonprofit groups that hold contracts with the city, began maintaining close ties with the Times Square Alliance and the Police Department. More units of supportive housing and specialized shelter beds were opened up to the chronically homeless, as an alternative to the intimidating and sometimes unruly general shelter system.
And the more commercial, safer and more tourist-friendly Times Square slowly became less comfortable for the street homeless.
“Whether by accident or not, certainly over the last 10 or 15 years, the cleaning up of Times Square and the street traffic in Times Square may have been an issue,” said Stephan Russo, the executive director of Goddard Riverside. “It can be a little daunting for them.”
The area still attracts panhandlers, and a few emotionally disturbed people who occasionally draw the attention of security employees of the Times Square Alliance. This month, they intervened when a man began tearing flowers out of a planter.
The social workers at Common Ground said they had no intention of pressing Heavy to leave the streets. But Tim Marx, the executive director, said neighbors might not be helping in the long term by giving Heavy food and clothing.
Directors at Common Ground are considering posting one of their outreach workers to stay with Heavy all day, study his habits and movements, and talk to neighbors about what is best for him.
Rosanne Haggerty, the president of Common Ground, said she had known Heavy since at least 1990, early in the days when she was working to end homelessness in Times Square. In those days, there were more than 70 people sleeping in the area on a typical night.
“He’s kind of iconic,” Ms. Haggerty said. “He would leave for periods and then return, and some days we would actually succeed in getting him inside. But he has this fascination with the life in Times Square.”

Yes, home is where the heart is.
Home is the place that does not ache.
Home is a place where you can be free.
Home is a hearth that is always safe.
Home is a place of comfort and calm.

We can imagine a place where everyone and everything is close at hand and no one can send you away or tell you that you don't belong.

Home is a place that stands ready to embrace you with all of your frailties and kisses you gently.

Home never shuts the door and leaves you in the cold. Home is a doorway that you enter and close the door behind you and you know that you are safe.

Home is where we all belong.

We belong to the community of our brothers and sisters who stand on the threshold waiting for us to enter.

Beckons us to sit down and take off our shoes, beckons us to the hearth and allows us to rest undisturbed and shut our eyes.
tucks us in with a warm blanket and fondles us in loving arms as a baby rocking in a cradle.

Gives us sanctuary, says , hush, yes, yes, yes rest

Be still heart that thumps and be still breast that pounds, be still furrowed brow, close your eyes and rest, hush, my baby and don't you cry.

Mamas going to rock you in her arms and lay you down in a warm bed and watch over you. Rest for as long as you like, you are home.

Everyone longs for a hearth and comfort, everyone belongs and no one is starving or lacking a warm blanket in the comfort that is offered to all children of the earth.

May this hearth keep you warm and safe as long as you breathe the ether of this land, there is no one who is left out in the cold or unprotected ever again, hush, don't you cry mama's going to rock you to sleep in loving arms and cradled in a swaddling cloth of love.

We will wait withering in the brush
sleeping on the hallowed ground of consciousness
clinging to the resolve that we will rise and walk out from this place
when it is time
We will listen to the stirring rhythm of the heart meekly
awaiting the grace of touch that raises the blushing pulse with hope
for tomorrow and a step that balances both poise and spirit
whose rising freshens the gift of breathing

We will furtively look at the eyes and lips of the damned as though this was the greatest passion
holding steadfast withered hands, stroking the troubled brow of the stooping shoulders, grasping a hold, aloft the spirit
of a compassionate vision of tenderness

for the last shall be first and the wandering vagabond will rise sitting on the right side of the feasting wayfarers.
Her rambling being a foreseen testimony of the days of remembering, keenly aware of the treasure of each one
preserving and persevering as long as two hearts beating as one in mine

though you are gone we will hold a place for you forever, a single heart aching with the blushing rose

Look now to the horizon of peace
crossing the escaping darkness that settles down and sinks in the recesses of the mind
mood letters of forgiveness for memories of sorrow that stole away dreams of friendly shores

lapping waters danced on the fringes of the drowning surf as sea going vessels floating in the tepid waters washing back and forth in the receding pools
we stayed afloat for eternity awaiting the tide to carry us out to sea

This sultry day the peace is kept rising inside the secret place of our restorative presence in the weeping mist
shrouding the darkness and protecting us from judgment either inside or out
making our sense of freedom and passion a shining chorus of longing

Come now and sit holding hearts that beat as one
be still and rejoice, verily coming to you, this warrior
holding us up shoulder to shoulder, who join in the arc, this circle marching on, holding one another aloft
This voracious intent of a valiant sentinel is in her spirit of devotion and serenity in accepting the peace

Let us rise, let us rise and march on, marching linked hand in hand this ribald band focused calmly, starkly, on the single aspiration walking on together
through all adversity, accepting this day and each that follows wakening a way, a means to live judiciously and humbly as a gift to one another

We are born to giving and receiving and living in connection with the earth, and when we lay our heads down it is done, we close our eyes and trembling
that the mantel sheathed by lands enveloping us reunites us in sweet-surrender.

Never more wait to see with whom you commune because there is no one else more faithful and real than thee
You look to your sacred heart aching in the gift and the joyous chorus of the gurgling, overflowing living waters of tenderness

There is no escaping, no noise to making, no place of refuge or hiding because all the world is inside out, upside down and backwards in one shuddering moment
convening here, now and forever tremulous convulsing, a synergy of the gaping mouth longing for lips to press and breath in the universe.

These ramblings spent remain, now, inside out .....................