The Dec. 27 opinion piece, written by two Portland City Council members, is perhaps more instructional about the problems of governing a city than the subject matter in their article (“Sweeping encampments is antiquated, inhumane”).
Let’s start with Robert E. Lee’s disgraceful opinion on the positive effects of slavery on its victims. Somehow equating the oppressed slave to the oppressed homeless – sorry, “unhoused” – tent occupant is a monumental stretch. Then they go on to make a similar comparison to the white slave master or oppressors.
Outside of providing portable toilets and buying more time for the council to deliberate a solution, the authors offered no practical ideas or initiatives for consideration. They decry the lack of input from the victims of a cruel system but don’t seem to have included any ideas from them in their piece.
The issues driving people into homelessness are serious and complex: addictions and substance abuse, serious mental conditions, family breakups, people released from prisons without any support, veterans etc. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, but perhaps a good place to start is to identify those who want to break their cycle of self destruction and are willing (and able) to participate in their own recovery and work with them.
No feeling human being welcomes the sight of others living in such distress. But doing the same old thing and hoping for a better outcome is neither good (long term) for those living in tents or the city of Portland.
Ken MacLean
Scarborough
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