 I know Anthony Hall, the homeless man who was arrested at Riverfront Park at 5:30 this morning by Springfield police and charged with rape, assault and battery, aggravated rape, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. Nice going, Springfield police!
I met Anthony in 2005 when he was "dating" the 14 year old daughter of a family I knew. He always creeped me out.
Later that year, he went on a bus trip with Arise to an anti-war rally in New York City, where hestole our video camera (the only one we've ever owned!) and probably sold it for crack. Of course he was banned from Arise after that. I was so furious that for several months, whenever I was driving around and saw him with a group of people, I'd yell, "Thief!" out the window at him. Didn't do much good, but it made me feel better.
No, I personally and other members of Arise don't think every homeless person is automatically a victim or a saint..
- - - - - - - - - -
Yesterday, wanted fugitive and hedge funds manager Samuel Israel III, who faked (not very successfully) his suicide last month just before he was supposed to turn himself to federal authorities to serve a 20 year sentence, turned himself into Southwick police. The NYT has an article here.
Southwick? Southwick? Well, it could have been Granville, population under 1,600, but when Mr. Israel went to turn himself in, the police department, only open part-time, was closed! So he moved on to Southwick. Apparently Mr. Israel had been staying at the Prospect Mountain Campground RV Park in an RV with his girlfriend.
What an idiot! I can think of several different lives that Mr. Israel could have lived as a fugitive, but my guess is that life without money was so inconceivable that, in the end, prison felt like the only logical choice. too bad, also, thjat federal judges are locked in to meting out a particular kind of punishment. I'd have preferred to see Mr. Israel sentenced to cleaning the toilets of the investors he ripped off.
Beautiful, ecological, protected from windstorms and earthquakes, close to nature, minimal energy demand: check out these great designs from Vetsch Architektur.
 OK, so I'm in a bad mood. Usually when I drive to work, when there are sparrows or crows or whatever in the road pecking at some crumbs, I say, "Watch out, little birds." Today I found myself saying, "Watch out, you stupid birds." At least I didn't try to run them down, although I'm feeling a bit "run over" myself.
I write a lot about poverty but I do not, generally, get into the messy details of my own life. To some degree I'm used to being broke. However recent events make a great illustration of how thin the margin for error is getting for so many people these days.
Mostly I do OK except when there are unexpected expenses such as a car suddenly needing repair. May and June's version of the unexpected was the sickness of my thirteen year old dog. Some $1,200 later, when it was clear he was suffering and wasn't going to get better, I made an appointment for a Monday to have him put to sleep. I'd used up nearly every penny left over from my previous two paychecks on his illness, so when I wrote the vet a check, I said, "This will not clear until Friday. Will you hang on to it until then?" The office manager said yes, and I put Friday's date on the check.
Low and behold, on Friday, when I checked my bank balance online, I saw that the check has been deposited on Thursday! Banknorth paid it, but that meant that three other smaller debit card purchases didn't clear. So I had $140 in overdraft fees. I checked with the vet's office, and they were apologetic, but....I called the bank, thinking that because they had honored a postdated check, I might be able to be reimbursed for those fees, only to be told that the bank will process any check submitted to them, even a postdated check.
"We stopped holding postdated checks three years ago," the man on the other end of the line told me, "and even before then, it was only a courtesy."
"And where is that information about your change in policy available?" I asked.
"The next time you're in the bank, pick up brochure #112C, and you'll see it there," he said. "Any other way I can be helpful?"
(Hey, though, I can just about guarantee that if my sister writes me a postdated check and I take it to my bank and try to cash it, the bank won't honor it!)
So OK, I don't like it, but I can handle it. This past Sunday, I had $48 in the bank, which I figured should be enough until Friday. Gee, the timing for my planned diet couldn't have been better!
Yesterday I bought a loaf of Italian bread at the supermarket and a gallon of gas at the gas station. This morning I check my bank balance to see if a clothing item I'd bought for my daughter's wedding but had to return (didn't fit me after all, part of the reason for my diet!) had been credited to my account yet, and what do I find? Apparently when my auto insurance renewed in June this year, the date on my automatic payment changed from the 21st to the 1st of the month. I called the insurance company and they were apologetic, but....."You signed a paper allowing that to happen," I was told. Yeah, I signed a bunch of papers that day, pro forma. So I'm an idiot. "Wouldn't it have been nice to point that change out to me?" I asked.
Now, if the bank had processed my deductions at the time they were made, I would have only had ONE fee, because I had enough money to cover the gas and loaf of bread. But, oh no, of course that's not the way the bank does things-- they deduct the largest expense first, no matter when it was made on that day. Why? Well, I'd guess to maximize their fees. According to a National Public Radio feature a few days ago, U.S. banks collected almost $39 billion in service charges last year, up 10% from the year before.
Now, the buck stops with me, of course, to manage my money better. I've stopped buying coffee on my way to work in the morning, and made a few other small changes, but there's just not a lot of fat in my budget.
If I had a couple thousand in savings, I could weather the unexpected expenses better-- but I don't. And I'll bet a lot of people don't. Meanwhile, in the classic "penny wise, pound foolish" mode, every few days I add power steering fluid to my car, which has a leak in the system that I can't afford to get fixed right now. I keep waiting for the landlord of the building where I work to tell me I've got to do something, as I'm ruining the parking space with leaked fluid.
All right. I'm starting to get over it. I may as well, because there's not a damn thing I can do about it! Just dig into my change for gas money this week, although the quarters are gone so I'm down to the dimes, but I'll go to the corner gas station where just about all the customers are poor and I won't have to deal with the arched eyebrow and slight sneer. And on Friday I'll get paid, and I'll have a chance to break this cycle.
Complain, complain, when at least I DO have a job and a car and a roof over my head. But it's tedious beyond belief. I'll just have to continue to suffer the joy of living in this wonderful land of opportunity where, as the song says, the rich get richer and the poor get shafted.
 Two days ago, a man was found dead near the riverfront-- almost surely a person without a home, I knew at once. This morning, I called the Springfield police and found out that his name was Wayne Martin. He was, I believe, in his late 40's or early 50's. The detective told me that his death was not being treated as a criminal matter; that he appeared to have died of natural causes.
By describing Mr. Martin's death as not a criminal matter, of course the detective meant that no other person murdered him. In every other way, though, the fact that a man can die in a nearly public place because he has nowhere to go is criminal in every other sense of the word.
I admit I barely remember Wayne Martin; others knew him better. I know he stayed at Sanctuary City for quite a while. He stayed at the Warming Place (when it was open) a few times at most, and probably never stayed at Worthington St. Shelter. Some people just can't hack shelters. Either they don't like rules, hate crowds, fear being robbed, can't sleep with the noise or, for those who are emotionally fragile, feel pushed to the edge and sometimes beyond.
Open Pantry Community Services has an informal tally of the names of homeless people who have died. Facts about a homeless person who dies can be thin sometimes; other times, everybody has a tale about the poor dead soul. The one common truth about all of them: they died without a home.
I must take this opportunity to remark upon the extraordinary dignity with which OPCS has always treated the homeless and poor people who come to them for help. They need the city's help to get through a rough patch. Give Mayor Sarno's office a call at 787-6100 and ask him to support the Open Pantry.
Illustration: Michael Leunig
 "When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before."
John D. Rockefeller, one year before prohibition ended in 1933.
Now substitute drugs.
This letter is quoted by David Borden, Executive Director of Stop the Drug War.org. in his editorial, How Long Does an Experiment Need to Continue Before It's Declared a Failure? Check it out.
Thanks for the tip, Cliff Thornton at Efficacy.
  If you think the only direction technology can go in is bigger and more complicated, these two sites are really worth checking out.
Low-Tech Magazine suggests ways to accomplish our world's tasks with less, rather than more, technology.Check out this article on why Citroën cars from the fifties through the eighties are more energy-efficient than the newest models.
Design for the Other 90% describes itself: Of the world?s total population of 6.5 billion, 5.8 billion people, or 90%, have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted; in fact, nearly half do not have regular access to food, clean water, or shelter. Design for the Other 90% explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for this ?other 90%.? Through partnerships both local and global, individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world?s poor and marginalized. Check out this design for a Big Boda Load-Carrying Bicycle-- capable of carrying hundreds of pounds or two additional passengers.
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Blog Directory ID: 1681
Blog URL: http://michaelannland.blogspot.com/
Google Pagerank: 4
Blog Description: Michaelann Land is the political and personal blog of a longtime community activist in Springfield Massachusetts. It tracks homelessness, poverty and environmental news in Western Mass and elsewhere, with random bursts of poetry and humor.
Blog Tags: poverty - social justice - homelessness - housing - environment - HUMAN RIGHTS 
Blog Category: Activism Blogs
Blog Owner: michaelann bewsee
Blog Added: February 18, 2008 12:24:38 AM
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