The homeless are speaking out against the city’s closure of tent city. On Tuesday, Oct.13, The City Council’s weekly meeting was overrun by homeless people calling for safe ground.The first big storm of the season had just hit the Sacramento area. In fact it was still rainingwhen the meeting was taking place. The City Council meets every week and anyone can attend. At the beginning of every meeting there is an allotted amount time for citizens to address The City Council. The homeless peo... rkinsel Top Cat 2808 comment-16729 2009-11-02T21:23:27Z 2009-11-02T21:23:27Z One thing I find very curious is the idea that businesses are going to sponsor the Tuff Sheds and pay to make them habitable. Why would a business do such a thing when Safe Ground is under the wing of Loaves & Fishes and the Safe Ground Movement desires to put an end to private businesses? Many private businesses exist because people are motivated by greed, but you don't end greed by ending the right of people to go into business by themselves. The ability to go into business by yourself, or in conjunction with others, is not just a hallmark of freedom; it is the essence of freedom. While many would thrive under a collectivist stucture in society, others would feel confined and be miserable, unable to pursue happiness by expressing their unique talents. What Green Meme Communitarians, like yourself, Paula, don't appreciate is that making the world into the Utopia that YOU seek, would make most other people especially unhappy. A society has to be stuctured to allow as many people as possible to BREATHE. Sure, corporations need to be reigned in and regulated like they haven't been since Bush took office, but they need to be allowed to exist, too, such that their efficiencies can bring down prices and provide good-paying jobs. Top Cat 2808 2009-11-02T21:23:27Z Paula Lomazzi comment-16417 2009-10-26T23:24:00Z 2009-10-26T23:24:00Z Tom, Costa Mantis wasn't there that day but I can get the video you're probably referring to. Mike is charging $10 and I was planning on sending away for a copy. Paula Lomazzi 2009-10-26T23:24:00Z Top Cat 2808 comment-16410 2009-10-26T21:30:42Z 2009-10-26T21:30:42Z paulal is, of course, Paula Lomazzi, the committee of one that makes up the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee and a writer for the communist rag People's Tribune [ peoplestribune.org ]. Costa Mantis took full-meeting video of a couple meetings you sponsored, Paula. I wonder how deep the support from the "business community" would be if they heard the left-of-Trotsky rhetoric from the planning committees. The problem, Paula, is that Safe Ground / SafeGround / safe ground is twelve-faced, giving differing stories dependent on the audience. Very very Orwellian. Ethel Long-Scott and Paul Bogen, the keynote speakers at the Homeless Power Forum you sponsored called for an American revolution to end capitalism and stop technological advancement. THAT meeting was filmed, Paula. What don't you screen THAT at the office of the Sacramento Press. I know full well what I'm talking about. It would be madness to allow Eden to be constructed in Sacramento under the aegis of Loaves & Fishes and teeny weeny SHOC. It is NOT the reputation of homeless people whom I am, somehow, destroying. It is Loaves & Fishes, SHOC and their attorneys who impose radical totalitarian Leftist politics at the base of the "Safe Ground Movement" that undermine and make impossible a legal homeless encampment, which I have always supported. It is you, Paula, who acts to undermine the safety of homeless people in Sacramento. I CHALLENGE you, Paula, to show unedited film of Long-Scott and Bogen's presentations at the office of the Sacramento Press. Top Cat 2808 2009-10-26T21:30:42Z Paula Lomazzi comment-16349 2009-10-26T06:28:04Z 2009-10-26T06:28:04Z Safe Ground Sacramento members are a great group of people from business community, non-profit orgs, and especially people that are homeless that want something better for their lives and are willing to work towards that goal. I don't know why someone would try to destroy their reputation every chance they get. Safe Ground Sacramento has a website www.safegroundsac.org where you can find out what its all about. Tom doesn't know what its about. Paula Lomazzi 2009-10-26T06:28:04Z Ryan Kinsel comment-16147 2009-10-23T07:49:35Z 2009-10-23T07:49:35Z I remember you. I heard your message, I apologize for not putting you into my article. This was my first foray into tackling a large article such as a City Council meeting. I may have bit off more than I can chew so to speak. I live downtown and I was unaware that such a problem existed. I thank you for commenting. For my own personal knowledge I will follow all links posted. Thank you. Ryan Kinsel 2009-10-23T07:49:35Z RLF comment-16129 2009-10-23T01:58:30Z 2009-10-23T01:58:30Z You might find this article interesting... "Homeless in Eureka get to sleep in cars" http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13619950 We also are against practices and laws that unfairly single out homeless people and criminalize them for everyday living and life-sustaining activites. At Redding California Loaves and Fishes we believe the world is not looking for a better sermon on Christian Love, but a better demonstration of it ! http://www.reddingloavesandfishes.com/ RLF 2009-10-23T01:58:30Z Top Cat 2808 comment-16124 2009-10-23T01:07:50Z 2009-10-23T01:07:50Z Hey there, Ryan. I was the first speaker that day. [Hmmm. You didn't mention me.] MY two-minute message was that the city doesn't have a partner for setting up a legal homeless encampment. As much as I would like, and feel the need for, a legal homeless encampment, there simply is no reliable organization of homeless people nor a homeless-help nonprofit run by grown-ups that can act in concordance with the city to set up a so-called Safe Ground. I am reluctant ever to use the term "Safe Ground" since, in Orwellian terms, it is "duckspeak" [see http://www.orwelltoday.com/duckspeak.shtml ], since it is used to mean both a LEGAL encampment [like so-called "Eden" that Loaves & Fishes has produced plans for (see sacloaves.org ), and the ILLEGAL encampment that existed on C Street, on Mark Merin's property, rather recently.] "Safe Ground Campaign" is the effort to get a legal homeless encampment, whereas the "Safe Ground Movement" means to end capitalism and retard technology to put America back in the Dark Ages to somehow spur a boon in employment. [Whoopee! We'll all be tilling the soil with our fingers!] It's all very interesting, but where oh where are the grown-ups that can come together to get something done!??? I have enormous respect for the people with safe ground who followed me up to the podium, and I know that outside City Hall most of them are very thoughtful, mature and compassionate, but I was not impressed by their rants and accusations on Oct 13. They can do better. As for my message to the City Council, I was extremely nervous and my mouth came disconnected from my brain. Top Cat 2808 2009-10-23T01:07:50Z