I collected 7 signatures in an hour this morning in front of the shinny new library at 78th and SE Holgate. Foot traffic at the front entrance was low. Most people park in the back and use that entrance. Cars are convenient and can diminish public spaces and interactions among citizens. An hour was enough and I hopped on my bike heading for the more urban Hollywood library. I stopped at a camp near the Mercado and told everyone I was running for Congress, Blumenauer's seat. No one was that impressed. I asked them what would be a small step in a good direction. One fellow suggested, 'leave us the f*ck alone.' Another suggested that they be allowed to keep a clean camp in front of abandoned buildings. I told them my theory that the root cause of homelessness is its use as a tool to divide citizens. Just like racism was invented by wealthy elites to keep the downtrodden apart, homelessness is used to dehumanize us. Our natural human instinct is to help people in need, (just ask any child), and to deny this isolates us and politically neuters us. No one was that impressed. I told them I thought housing was a human right and a prerequisite to democracy. I told them the root cause of the the housing crises is the commodification of housing. When the red/blue regime bailed out the banks in 2008, 8 trillion dollars of housing was transferred from regular American families to the banks. Housing is not a commodity!
Then I collected 17 signatures in an hour outside of the Hollywood library. I am started to know several of the regulars.
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