Category Archives: Justice

* The inevitability of evil

December 23, 2014Get on your feet, Justice, The Way of PeaceCharlie Sheen, Choosing feelings, Contrast theodicy, Cosmology, Denise Richards, McDonald's #2763, Prayer, Schizophrenia, Sublimation, Take things in stride, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

Sooner or later, it had to happen.

Sunday, about 14:00, I had just bought my second coffee at McDonald’s. I put it on my table and, as they require me to do, took all my things with me to go out and smoke.

Outside, I took one more shot at trying to understand how evil — negativity, conflict — happens.

There are those who say that evil is necessary because without it, humans would never be able to appreciate joy. I have never found this believable.
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* Status report: A snapshot of my life right now

December 20, 2014Get on your feet, Justice, UncategorizedAttribution, Here - Now - Can, Hope, Keep the focus on you, Presence, Race, The Homeless Blogger, Upward mobilityWilliam Tell

On Tuesday 12/02, my therapist asked for a thumbnail summary of my overall situation.

I said, “I have goals, I’m taking concrete steps toward those goals, and I have a ton of hope.”

I know no way to account for this but the exact scenario I set forth in “Chaos overwhelms the poor:” I pay attention only to the concrete here-and-how, and to what I myself can do. (Related: Here – Now – Can.) From the farthest reach of my right fingertip to my right, to the farthest reach of my left fingertip to my left: within that range lies all my responsibility, everything that I can control. Here, the world appears orderly. Here, I can order and manage my affairs. Here I have power. I can act effectively. I can easily find hope.

A ton of hope.
Continue reading * Status report: A snapshot of my life right now →

* Change Begins Here

December 15, 2014Get on your feet, Justice, The Way of PeacePresence, Random Words, The Homeless Blogger, Tracey SeekinsWilliam Tell

This is square-on with a forthcoming post of my own, “A place to begin.”

Reblogged 2020-08-06.

Random Words

I woke up this morning thinking about change. Thinking about how we begin to change our world, one person at a time. That’s exactly it. We create change one person at a time, one action at a time, one THOUGHT at a time.

Change begins with us and within us. The world will not become a better place by leaving it up to someone else. Change will not happen as long as we believe things are not our problem or that we don’t make a difference.

Change begins within us. By changing how we see ourselves and treat ourselves, we begin to change the way we see others and treat others. By changing how we see others and treat others, we begin a ripple effect that reaches out over the miles changing how others see and treat each other.

Change does not and will not happen overnight, but over time…

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o Syracuse: Another Ban in the Box Success

December 10, 2014Get on your feet, Job search/Job prospects, Justice, National newsBackgroundsWilliam Tell

* My white friends are upset about Eric Garner

December 6, 2014Clippings, Homelessness, Justice, National newsCharles Krauthammer, Crime, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, O. J. Simpson, Police, Preponderance of the evidence, Probable cause, Race, Reasonable doubt, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

Garner grand jury case reaction unifies left and right
Krauthammer: Decision not to indict NYPD officer ‘totally incomprehensible’

Garner was middle-aged, as we are. He had not just robbed a cigar store, rough-handling the clerk; he was selling “loose ones,” as we all do. We all buy and sell them all the time. There’s some risk to it, as in Baltimore this activity in public can get you a $150 ticket (and you must appear for trial).

Death, however, isn’t normally in the scenario.
Continue reading * My white friends are upset about Eric Garner →

* “How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty”

November 29, 2014Clippings, Homelessness, Justice, National media, National news, Poverty, SqualorAutonomy, Cause and effect, Chaos, Conspiracy theories, Jack Kirkland, Prisons, Race, Radley BalkoWilliam Tell

“[T]he uprising in Ferguson was an inevitable reaction to the institutional racism coursing through the area for decades.” — Jack Kirkland

I’m homeless. At this writing, I’ve been homeless for exactly 3½ years.

When you meet a homeless man for the first time, you won’t notice his skin color. Not first. You’ll notice the condition he’s in. You’ll notice his clothes, his grooming, his conduct. Skin color is so far down the list, it might as well be left off completely.

Some disagree. They seem to think race is the only factor in poverty.

Continue reading * “How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty” →

* “Acting White”

November 15, 2014Audition files, Get on your feet, Justice, OUR BEST POSTSAutonomy, Blackness, Kristen Coke, Race, RacismWilliam Tell

‘Acting White’

Against the notion that blacks victimize themselves by “acting black,” Princeton undergraduate Kristen Coke complains that “acting white” does not insulate her from petty racist insults. After all, she doesn’t act “ghetto.”

I’m not concerned about victimizations that occur when blacks “act white” in the presence of whites. In my world, there aren’t enough white people to matter. I’m concerned about the victimizations that occur when black people “act black” among blacks.

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* Karma basics

November 12, 2014Get on your feet, Homelessness, Justice, Poverty, ScienceChronic lateness, Defects of character, Delayed sleep phase syndrome, Jamarion Lawhorn, Karma, Reincarnation, SchizophreniaWilliam Tell

We begin with Galaxian’s comment on “Jeanette:”

Schizophrenia is not a karmic matter. It is an organic disease just as much as cancer is. I don’t see how anything someone did in a previous life, or early in their current life, would bring this horrible thing on them. Anybody can develop this condition at any time, although it usually starts in young adulthood.

I gather we are both familiar with this disease.

It’s a mistake to condemn a person on the basis of his or her lot, and also can be highly misleading to say she or he “deserves” it.

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* Injustice at the shelter

November 5, 2014Get on your feet, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, JusticeTake things in stride, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

Saturday 2014-11-01

I was very nearly turned away tonight.

I arrived at 15:45, and the gate was closed. I’ll explain why that did not disturb me. As I’m a “regular,” they’re supposed to hold my bunk for me until 16:00. Leo, another “regular,” arrived minutes later.

A closed gate at this hour as often as not means they’re doing a “count,” a comparison of the checkin logs (plural) to pin down exactly how many beds are left. Depending on who’s at the desk, this can take ten minutes — or 45.
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* Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless?

October 18, 2014Get on your feet, Homelessness, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, SqualorFree Speech Handbook, McDonald's #2763, Serenity prayer, Take things in stride, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

UPDATES APPEAR IN THE COMMENTS.

Blogging experts tell us to give our posts dramatic titles. I might not tell the story at all, but on the one hand there is an expectation that (though I seldom do) a homeless blogger will tell about the difficulties homeless people face. On the other hand, it provides occasion for me to set forth William Tell’s current approach to injustice.

It will also let me model the principles of Free Speech Handbook.

This concerns an incident of October 7, 2014.
Continue reading * Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless? →