See the commentary in the Colorado Independent by clicking here.
Excerpt copied below:
Boulder is the 17th wealthiest city in the 57th wealthiest county in the 10th wealthiest country in the world. One would expect such wealth would relieve Boulder residents from the horrors of the Third World. However, no amount of CrossFit gyms or organic bone broth can provide one of the bare necessities for human survival: shelter. While most Boulder residents have never once had to experience the anxiety of not knowing where they will sleep on any given night, hundreds of Boulder residents live this reality every day; they have nowhere to rest, socialize, cook, sleep, and most importantly, escape the harsh cold.
Benjamin Harvey was one such Boulder resident experiencing homelessness. He couldn’t afford the city’s skyrocketing rent and found himself staying at the shelter. One fateful day, Benjamin had the audacity to pick up his mail a few minutes past the arbitrary 6-8 a.m. mail pickup window, and with the same frustration you and I experience when facing the frivolous bureaucracy of the DMV, tapped his hand on the shelter window. The punishment you or I would face for such an egregious outburst would be a side-eyed glance at best, but for Benji, this understandable display of emotion was quite literally a death sentence. Our neighbor froze to death on Christmas Day because he was turned away from the shelter for his violation, despite being recommended to the shelter by the city’s emergency relief service, Coordinated Entry.
It goes on, but you get the drift . . . It’s the same old lack of personal responsibility by homeless people themselves and finger-pointing at those in authority always being peddled by the socialists in Boulder. And I don’t quite believe the version of events involving Benji Harvey as presented above; I went there almost every morning for about a decade to shower, and I saw plenty of obnoxious and even violent behavior from homeless men and women which needed to have consequences, including being banned from the facility either temporarily or permanently. Such measures could have been employed more often than they were, in my view.
In any case, having come across socialist Jamie Morgan’s piece in the Colorado Independent earlier this morning, I left this reply on their website:
‘No more dead bodies on Boulder streets’ is certainly a catchy title, but if the author is serious he’ll join me in urging the homeless men and women in that city to stop their self-destructive behaviors. And while they’re at it, they could also stop stabbing each other. In any case, it’s long overdue to stop exploiting the death of a homeless man on Christmas morning of 2017. I met him a couple of times, and he was out-of-control intoxicated on both occasions, to the point that I told him to get off the corner of N. Broadway & U.S. 36 with his silly cardboard sign before he made all of the typically generous passersby angry. I thought at the time that I’d be seeing his name in the news, found dead from alcohol poisoning; as it turns out, his BAC was only a contributing factor to death by environmental hypothermia.
Who am I to opine on homelessness and homeless people? I’m someone who lived outdoors year-round in Boulder, CO and its environs for a decade after arriving in early 2008. I was never a drinker nor a drug abuser, never got a ticket for anything and had a friendly relationship with law enforcement officers from several agencies, practiced good personal hygiene, and most significantly I never became a dependent of government social services and private nonprofits. Friends I made in the broader community, residents of the neighborhood I lived in, passersby when I was respectfully panhandling, and readers of my blog all donated cash, food, clothing, hygiene items, books, etc. for my benefit over the course of those many years.
I also made it a point to never segregate myself into any so-called homeless community, where it’s so perilously easy to develop an entirely negative Us-Against-Them outlook. Nobody but the homeless themselves are hurt by this, and yet the self-styled homeless advocates reinforce this sense of isolation. Of course, the high-profile advocates have no firsthand experience of the lifestyle, and are just regurgitating Far Left talking points. They do not now speak, nor have they ever spoken, for me.
At times, the do-gooders’ drivel makes me chuckle. At other times, when I see more shameless exploitation of a poor deceased homeless guy, I become angry, This isn’t good for my health, as I’m residing now in a long-term care facility after a heart attack and some other serious medical issues which overtook me in December, 2017. Thus, I vent by writing.
Thanks for your time! BTW, I’m not a socialist like the author of the commentary I’m replying to; I’d label myself a libertarian (small “l”) who votes for the candidate rather than the party. If you ever want a real homeless man’s perspective, rather than that of a poseur, I’m available.
Max
(E-mailed to Boulder City Council.)
homelessphilosopher 