Here in its entirety is an open letter from a friend of mine. It was published this week in the Portland Mercury and the Portland Tribune. I think it deserves an even wider audience, even if you cannot directly relate to the situation in Portland.

Here is the letter:

This is in regard to the recent police presence in the South Park Blocks. This is not a “down on martial law in the park” letter.
I think everyone has the right to walk the streets without fear. But I do not like being blamed for drug dealing, fighting, mugging and other sordid activities that occur there just because I am homeless.
That’s right, I am homeless. I am also a college student, attending classes at the Sylvania campus of Portland Community College. Today I missed class because I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. — in the rain — on a church doorstep where I have permission to sleep because I, and people like me, are now the cause of everything that is evil in Portland.
I am not a drug dealer, nor most likely is anyone else you see panhandling. The funny thing about drug dealing is that it causes you to have money. The funny thing about having money is that it causes you to lose all interest in panhandling and not living in a house. Therefore, drug dealing leads to not being homeless, and I find it unfair that so many newspaper articles discussing the problem of drug abuse and sales are headed by a big black headline that says “Something something homeless.”
A typical day for me starts at around 8 a.m. when I get up and catch the free shuttle bus to PCC. There I go to class, do homework, etc., until 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., when I catch another free shuttle downtown and sit outside a restaurant, hoping someone is kind enough to buy me breakfast/lunch/supper.
Then it’s off to a doorstep or under a bridge to sleep for the night.
Once in a while, when someone is kind enough to let me use a bathroom, I shower so as not to be any more offensive to my classmates than is unavoidable.
Funny, isn’t it? In some ways I am so much like anyone else, but so different in others. Take, for instance, that if someone asks me for money, and I have some, I give it to him. Or the fact that I want to pursue a career in social service and/or mission work after graduation because I see people who need help, not nuisances to be overlooked or run out of downtown.
I feel it is a sad society, a society destined for a fall, that does not strive to help its underprivileged and, instead, pushes them out of sight.
In the meantime, who am I? Just look around you. I hope that the next time you turn up your nose at that guy in the hooded sweatshirt you’ll wonder: “Did he write that letter?” Am I the old man with the sign on the corner? I could be. Do you really want to make me go to bed hungry? Could some of the other “nuisances” that you try to pretend aren’t there be just like me? Yes.

The "perception" issue mentioned in my last post seems to be smacking me in the face repeatedly. I wonder where the general populace gets their impressions, their perceptions that street kids are dangerous and responsible for random violent crimes in downtown Portland. Then I proceed to peruse the local media outlets and what do I find? Semantic evidence of the perception problem being published and distributed for mass consumption. A quote from today's Portland Tribune:

"But now, 28 years later, the mall has become “tired and needs attention,” said Sandra McDonough, president and chief executive officer of the Portland Business Alliance. Bricks have deteriorated, bus stops need fixing and businesses don’t like the ban on cars or the prevalence of the spiky-haired druggies and homeless." (italics mine)

It doesn't take a genius to make the conclusion that in the public mind, spiky-haired druggies=street kids. And most Portlanders know that the bus mall is not the most desirable place to spend an evening. So the conclusion becomes: street kids=the deterioration of the bus mall. Hmmm...

I've been a Trimet soldier for a while now, and taking the 4 downtown in the morning allows me to witness the bus mall/open-air drug market in all its seedy glory. I can safely say that the "businesspeople" that create the lovely ambiance of 5th and 6th Avenues are not "spiky-haired", nor are they homeless. They are drug dealers, professional ones at that. I rarely even see street kids in the bus mall, with the exception of spangers out in front of the Rite Aid entrance on 6th and Morrison.

I realize this is a small detail in a large article, but it demonstrates that placing the blame for downtown's woes on the homeless, particularly street kids, comes quite naturally in the media. I'm sure the average reader digests this kind of rhetoric without notice. And then the next time someone politely asks them for change, they feel that they have been "aggressively panhandled."

Don't even get me started on The Oregonian's seamless connection of the South Park Blocks situation (obnoxious street kids living downtown) with the rash of shootings over the summer (gangbangers from other parts of town, possibly other cities). My question is this: do you have the spine to go and see for yourself? Or do you let other people create your perception?

The mayor of Portland just announced that a 9pm curfew will be enforced in the South Park Blocks area of downtown Portland. The reason for the curfew is to deal with the problem of large groups of street kids congregating in the park, using and selling drugs, and harassing passers-by.

Ok, time for me to put in my two cents, I suppose. (wow, how tentative can I be?)

- First of all, the park blocks are not my favorite place. The kids there are unpredictable, many are paranoid meth addicts. I have been threatened there, and people we know have been attacked there as well. The park blocks used to be a great place to hang out, but the majority of the previous crowd moved to the Square (as in Pioneer Courthouse) when a younger, rowdier group of kids moved in from the waterfront area.

- Something should be done about the park blocks situation. At the very least, the people responsible for the actual offenses (selling/using drugs, starting fights, etc) should be targeted. It should be noted that these people do not represent the entire group, but one or two bad experiences is enough to sour someone's perception of the whole. Which leads to my next point...

- This is all about "perception." The article in The Oregonian reports that crime rates downtown have been steadily decreasing over the years, but for some reason people still feel unsafe downtown. Apparently dirty, unkempt looking people make non-dirty, kempt looking people feel unsafe. But we all knew that.

-The unsettling aspect here is the city's attitude toward the situation. "Just make them go away." As long as we don't have to look at them, we will at least feel safe. What matters is that people are coming downtown and spending money. If the bottom lines begin to sag, then the automatic reaction is to find someone to blame. And I have a sneaking suspicion that "someone" is usually going to be flying a sign and asking you for change (aka "Agressive panhandling")

- I have written this before and will say it again: one thing we can do, if we oppose this attitude, is to go downtown more often. If nothing else it will show them that not everyone is afraid of homeless people.

Had a very interesting discussion with a friend today about pornography...it's an issue that the church still seems to skirt around uncomfortably. I think that people are coming up with good harm reduction strategies like accountability groups, internet filters, etc. But these are still only harm reduction, and they fail to address the pertinent issues at the heart of the porn problem.

C.S. Lewis said something to the effect that if a society got all hot and bothered looking at pictures of food, you'd think that something was twisted about their appetite for food. So since we get all hot and bothered looking at naked people, something must be amiss with our sexual appetites. Obviously we are corrupted by sin and the natural sexual impulse is twisted. But I don't see a whole lot of work being done by the church at large to discuss a "redeemed sexuality" if you will. Especially when it comes to single people -- we just tend to shrug our shoulders and say "uh...I dunno."

So as not to merely complain without suggesting anything positive, let me posit this: maybe we could do more to affect the objectifying of women in our society? Surely that's another root cause of pornography -- a warped sense of beauty where we must always feel like something "better" is out there. If women didn't feel like they had to dress a certain way to be attractive, for instance, perhaps this would tone down the general lustfulness that seem to be prevalent everywhere. Of course that requires the church to take a prophetic stance. Can we give women the freedom to be beautiful without being cheap? Is this a step toward a healthy, redeemed sexuality?

It took over 2 hours to ride the bus from outer southeast Portland to Vancouver today. That's the same amount of time it takes to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles.

Riding the bus, however, is a fascinating experience. The slices of life, the scenes of humanity...colorful people ride the bus. They have not fallen prey to the imprisonment of the personal automobile. In a drastically isolated society they are forced to experience life together.

It is noisy, it can be annoying. It smells. Sometimes it smells very bad.

Other times it hints at redemption, reconciliation. Hope lives in the eyes of the tired traveler. Sparks fly when lives and worlds and stories collide in cramped spaces.