Opening some things for discussion

It is the big build up to the Federal Elections, I suppose the poverty issues people and the environmental people and all those out there with ideological axes to grind are going to keep our little street sheet brimming over with content for quite awhile until the big dust ups are all over. We've been informed by Big Real that the format of the sheet will soon change and that is a huge part of what the paper is and has been, the operative "transition", defining it. When I picked up my first copy of RC to vend it is the paper that I vend today that I visualized I was pushing. Sad to say that while there have been some progressive changes made around Seattle due to the advocacy and activism of some of the housing soldiers, (squatters, tent people, etc.), the issue is still viable, problem still exists. I'm still selling RC with no real place of my own to go at night and what I feel really crummy about is that maybe 10 or 12 years later a lot of the same faces that were around and homeless are still there in spite of access to services that were supposed to be designed to get them started on the road to independence and self sufficiency. Well maybe I'm wrong about what these services for the poor are designed to do. We are constantly being informed by providers of the impermanent and stop gap nature of the help that they are intended to provide. "We can only do so much." "It's up to you." "Happy to put you on the waiting list." etc. Some of us will never get off of that waiting list, and I get the feeling sometimes that my providers are too very much enjoying their role as portals and keepers. Hey, we've all got to get our sense of empowerment from somewhere. I sort of feel that if a street sheet can expand and change to such a large extent why not some of these programs? Seattle people are a lot more liberal, about expressing their opinion about you, if you're a visible homeless person with bags and what not now. I hear Tramp! and things like that a whole lot more than I ever used to and what's more shocking is that I hear them from other poor people just as often as I do from the N-franchised. This also jibes with the reappearance of the X-pletive Nig which had gotten to the point of Esperanto, barely ever spoken, now get off the bus in the wrong neighborhood and expect to hear it. People are something else. Bottom line is I make a little coin selling papers for the cause, I can buy a coffee, new change of clothes, afford the bus fare, the little things but I ain't gonna get rich and that's fine. I don't have huge expectations, probably won't meet the love of my life, (see serial killer, cross genocidal maniac) and maybe I'll never get my luggage out of Greyhound, let alone make it to my parent's funeral, (they were waiting for me but...), I know for sure that I am here that I'm only one paper away from .65, and there's free hot coffee for vendors at the RC office... and at the Native casino of your choice. I know for sure that the choice is up to you and on any given day it's one helluva dicey gamble.

Starting Off - Danina

This blog is for the Real Change vendors, to rant, share, plan, create, brainstorm, and generally sound off.

Enjoy.