Month: February 2022

Experiencing homelessness in Minnesota is especially harsh in our cold winter climate and with all the Covid restrictions and perils.

There are as many reasons for being homeless as there are people experiencing it. I am not a politician or a lawmaker and I don’t have the means to give everyone a home who needs one. But I have compassion and empathy and I want to share some observations.

There are people experiencing homelessness all around us. Some are young, some are old. They may work or they may not. Some are sound of mind and body, some are not. Many experience mental illness and/or addictions that make it hard to get a job, hold a job, make good decisions and assimilate into the mainstream economy.

When it is ten below zero outside, the shelters are full, stores and public places are closed or have restricted hours due to Covid 19, it is not helpful to spout “tough love” narrative. We can help by opening our hearts and really feeling the plight of our fellow humans.

Right in our neighborhoods, there are people without food, without adequate clothing and shelter; with no where to go and no place to belong. Public shelters are not always available and are not very safe, because desperate people in desperate situations will behave badly. Your property might be stolen and when you only own the items you can carry, it is a big loss when they are gone. Losing your boots or gloves may mean you lose a toe or a finger.

People experiencing mental illness want to be independent and have autonomy. Often the illness can cause disruptive behavior that families and others don’t know how to handle. These people need ongoing medical care and oversight. We just don’t do enough in America to help these folks among us.

Minnesota has a large tax surplus this year and my desire is to see some of it spent on affordable or free housing to first get everyone in out of the cold. Next, work on long term treatment plans for those with mental and/or physical health problems. Finally, permanent housing, and employment support for those who can work. This would be more meaningful to me than a refund check for $175.00 as proposed by our governor. When we work together, we can solve big issues; that was the reason for collecting the taxes in the first place.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/1-student-killed-another-injured-shooting-outside-richfield-school/89-3e77b3ca-ed16-4ae7-8661-751be3ab661d?fbclid=IwAR2fC-aA9724c8IDPhsuVP5mSAl_hn84Yt5g8cXjqb7vZ3vSn_BlXAE6pCw

One thing boomers did not have to deal with were school shootings like the ones that are increasingly common today. I remember practicing for fire drills, and maybe a bomb scare on a sunny day, but the need to prepare for an active shooter was not part of our school curriculum.

I have been working from home due to the Covid 19 pandemic since March of 2020. I can listen to the radio, watch the news on television and check online news sources throughout the day. The news I’m getting is rife with illness, suffering, anger, violence and tragedy. Yesterday, while attending a zoom meeting, I got a notification of an active school shooting in the city where my daughter teaches. I quickly sent off a text asking if she was okay. My heart skipped some beats while I learned the details of the situation. She was okay, her students were okay. But two students were not okay. Two had been shot while standing in front of their school and we have since learned that one of them died.

The suspects in this shooting are kids. Kids with guns. Shooting kids outside of school. No apparent motive, but names were dropped in the news report of another shooter, another shooting victim, a trial judge, and a local activist. Hearing those names brings to mind the recent conflict in the Minneapolis community around the existing systemic racism, resulting in racially motivated mistreatment of people of color by the police. The responses to those events have deepened the divide between those who believe Black Lives Matter and those who are angered by the idea.

But I am not focusing on all of that. I am thinking about kids going to school and teachers doing their best to prepare for class. I am thinking about my daughter heading off to school for the past two years wearing goggles, face mask, face shield and a microphone so the kids can hear her through all the protective gear. I am thinking about the times she has cried in frustration because there aren’t enough resources to teach the kids, keep them fed and give them the tools they need to learn. I am thinking about all the teachers, para professionals, administrators and others who miss lunch and bathroom breaks, and spend all of their free time planning lessons and learning to teach online because they love their students and want to keep them safe and help them succeed.

The students are the ones we love and want to protect. And in the split second it takes to pull a trigger, we are losing them to violence and bad decisions. Often the shooters are young people. When kids have access to such powerful weapons that yield immediate and devastating results, how do we keep them safe? How do we save the innocent victims, and how do we save the ones who pull the trigger? I don’t know. But I do know if we want to get to a solution, we have to keep asking the hard questions and then really listen to what we hear so we are better prepared to take action for change.