In a Smoke-Filled Gloom

Recently the Seattle Times reported that some public-housing agencies around here are looking at banning smoking in the units of some buildings. At first this got my Wrath up and running around, and the Downtown Emergency Services Center was about to demand ID from the visiting vein in my forehead. So Anitra “Who Needs No Last Name, As Her First Is Not Yet Used Up” fetched the customary three vats of cold water, and here we are now, calm and orderly, and able to discuss this issue in a polite and civilized manner.

I should begin by saying I don’t smoke. I haven’t for nine years. I don’t plan to resume smoking ever. I don’t have a direct personal interest in the question. If smoking were banned in all the rooms of my subsidized DESC-run apartment building tomorrow I wouldn’t give a wrinkled rat’s ass.

But there is another issue behind the immediate issue of whether smoking is banned in rooms or not. It is an issue that means a lot to me, so much that I could spit flaming wrinkled asses.

Here’s the thing. The article was all about “these public health people here sent out a survey of these residents there” and “these residents responded” and “this public housing agency here will do another survey of these other residents” and then “we’ll decide what to do about it” and WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY MEAN BY “WE,” I’ll tell you want they mean: THEY MEAN THEM.

It’s just another example of how the public housing agencies don’t defer to the rightful power of their tenants.

How about if we decide our government the way public housing decides these kinds of rules.

Let’s say in the summer of 2008 Congress commissions a survey. They select a “representative sampling” of Americans and ask them questions like these: Which statement is more true FOR YOU, 1) I like a president who listens to me, 2) I like a president who goes his own way, 3) I don’t care, either way is fine. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most, tell how much do you agree the following statements. 1) It’s OK if a woman is president. 2) National security is really important to me. 3) Presidents should be tall.

Then let’s say a Congressional Committee made up of five or ten typical Congressional jerks, much like the jerks who sit on public housing agencies boards, gets together and wets it’s collective seven or eight neurons with the results of that survey. Then, let’s say they do a few more surveys, because they liked the first one so much, it tingled.

Finally they make a decision! Your next president is… whoever they say he or she is!

Meanwhile, let’s say you ask, where was the power of the people in all this? They then tell you that you, the people, WE’RE consulted. By surveys! They tell you they did everything they could to take your “issues” into account. They say they got all kinds of “public input” and “public feedback.” But in the end they decided.

That’s what public housing agencies do.

Would it hurt them to let the residents of each building work it out themselves? The enforcement could be the same. Management could stage the community meetings and set up the vote and enforce the result. But the difference is, the people whose lives are effected by the decision do the deciding, not patronizing jerks who live in houses in the suburbs and think they’re better than the people forced by circumstances to rent from their public housing.

Speaking of people forced into public housing, the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness is underway and everyone’s congratulating themselves on the numbers from this year’s One Night Count. A piece of the plan is to lure homeless people into permanent housing and off the streets, to reduce the total cost of services.

It’s easier to lure people into self-determination, than into slavery.

Speaking of Haiku

Speaking of haiku

The consummate poet al-

-ways has one or two.

If you don't recall what a haiku is check out my first:

CHECK IT OUT

or Opus 3, My First Haiku

First: five syllables

Second: seven syllables

Last: five syllables.

Cool huh? O.K., here's one more haiku to whet haiku-appetites, one which I'm sure will be well-received by all your "poetry-cognoscenti." Like many great poems it seeks the Universal in the Particular. It is after all that only by staring unflinchingly at each "pixel" of our reality in this world that we can create a gestalt of our other-than-realities in this world, such as the Universal Objective. So have some gestalt on me!

The Beer Drinker's Haiku

or Opus 5, My First Haiku with Content

H! A! I! K! U!

Don't be drinking all the brew!

Or you WILL upchuck!

Having surmised my views on the Seattle Commons plan Peter Powers, a local building contractor, writes:

Dear Selfish Ex-homeless Jerk -

Let me explain something to you and your kind about the Seattle Commons. We
are not trying to "make people homeless". For every apartment we lay waste,
we will build a new "low income" apartment to replace it. So you see, our
goal is not to increase the total number of homeless but instead to pass the
experience of homelessness to people who haven't already had it. You've had
your chance to be homeless; now let's see some other deadbeats and losers hit
the streets!

But - just to show you I'm a nice guy - here's a poem you can stick in your
"column":

I'm not a bad person you know,
I'm just a guy seeking to grow.
But messing up lives
By leveling dives
Fulfills all my needs to get dough.

I believe you, Peter. But next time could you please keep to a hundred words or less? THANKS!! I have needs, too!

And THANKS!! to you, Reader, for reading. Read next month, and learn something about the poet's craft.