Marty, thank you for your prophetic anger and for pointing to ways that citizens, governments, and public agencies can step up together to the humanitarian crises of our times. And thank you for the links to share our thoughts and stories with local governing bodies. I'll do just that!
Thank you for this. There was definitely multiple failures in the system- from the people of Springfield not getting direct information from SUB about the 'boil water' advisory to the complete lack of any resources for help into well into the week. However, the scariest part of your post for me came at the end. 115 people in the ER?! I don't know what anyone expected when OHA allowed the downtown PeaceHealth to close, but that is an emergency. We desperately need adequate emergency medicine coverage in this area. I am sure McKenzie-Willamette was equally full. The whole "not our job" is heard over and over lately, and you address very well why this is indeed the government's job.
And how much money do they spend chasing homeless people around, making them move, and cleaning up after them? That money would be better spent providing shelter.
This is a comment for "Failing Grade." The link directed me here for some reason?
As usual you point out important issues. What's more important than health and education? While the solutions to better education can be complicated by bias, politics, finance, etc, you note two items which are not rocket science and are foundational to educational success. I'd argue foundational for success in life and communities as well. "Showing up," you must be present to win holds true for both education and life. While many people, educators included, rail against standardized testing, it is a benchmark for the aggregate performance of our educational institutions. Maybe instead of whining against it, if it was leaned into, the aggregate performance of students would improve. Then when students are held accountable to performance standards later in life, in their jobs, professions, military, etc. they will not wilt under the pressure of accountability and performance.
Eugene City officials ended many reasonable special housing arrangements when they told churches that they were not safe for humans overnight. They only looked at regularly used buildings and forgot the danger for the homeless was to be outside, alone, and unprotected with no shelter from the extreme cold. Not to mention rain.That limited the warming center movements in the Eugene community to overwhelmed standard charities.
Thanks for adding your voice in support of our suffering homeless folks. Jerry Smith
I appreciate this. The automatic response (and the response of people like myself who stayed inside with power for four days and didn't see the reality of the crisis outside) is to be positive and grateful to the people who eventually did clear the streets and get the power back on. (I do think EPUD went above and beyond to get power back to people south of Eugene; it took ages but they were working hard.) It's less natural or easy, especially on social media, to call out the systems that didn't work. Just because local officials "mean well" doesn't mean they did well or that they shouldn't be called out for inaction. In the absence of local journalism that can shine a light on things like this, I'm grateful your substack does. And I miss you in public office, even though I doubt you could have spoken so freely there.
Marty, thank you for your prophetic anger and for pointing to ways that citizens, governments, and public agencies can step up together to the humanitarian crises of our times. And thank you for the links to share our thoughts and stories with local governing bodies. I'll do just that!
Thank you for this. There was definitely multiple failures in the system- from the people of Springfield not getting direct information from SUB about the 'boil water' advisory to the complete lack of any resources for help into well into the week. However, the scariest part of your post for me came at the end. 115 people in the ER?! I don't know what anyone expected when OHA allowed the downtown PeaceHealth to close, but that is an emergency. We desperately need adequate emergency medicine coverage in this area. I am sure McKenzie-Willamette was equally full. The whole "not our job" is heard over and over lately, and you address very well why this is indeed the government's job.
And how much money do they spend chasing homeless people around, making them move, and cleaning up after them? That money would be better spent providing shelter.
This is a comment for "Failing Grade." The link directed me here for some reason?
As usual you point out important issues. What's more important than health and education? While the solutions to better education can be complicated by bias, politics, finance, etc, you note two items which are not rocket science and are foundational to educational success. I'd argue foundational for success in life and communities as well. "Showing up," you must be present to win holds true for both education and life. While many people, educators included, rail against standardized testing, it is a benchmark for the aggregate performance of our educational institutions. Maybe instead of whining against it, if it was leaned into, the aggregate performance of students would improve. Then when students are held accountable to performance standards later in life, in their jobs, professions, military, etc. they will not wilt under the pressure of accountability and performance.
Dear Marty, I enjoy reading your comments.
Eugene City officials ended many reasonable special housing arrangements when they told churches that they were not safe for humans overnight. They only looked at regularly used buildings and forgot the danger for the homeless was to be outside, alone, and unprotected with no shelter from the extreme cold. Not to mention rain.That limited the warming center movements in the Eugene community to overwhelmed standard charities.
Thanks for adding your voice in support of our suffering homeless folks. Jerry Smith
You rock, Marty! Wish you were still my representative.
I appreciate this. The automatic response (and the response of people like myself who stayed inside with power for four days and didn't see the reality of the crisis outside) is to be positive and grateful to the people who eventually did clear the streets and get the power back on. (I do think EPUD went above and beyond to get power back to people south of Eugene; it took ages but they were working hard.) It's less natural or easy, especially on social media, to call out the systems that didn't work. Just because local officials "mean well" doesn't mean they did well or that they shouldn't be called out for inaction. In the absence of local journalism that can shine a light on things like this, I'm grateful your substack does. And I miss you in public office, even though I doubt you could have spoken so freely there.