[ExI] Homelessness [was Re: A Small Request [was Re:Impressive book: Farewell toAlms]]

[spike]

> Fred C. Moulton

>... So are you 
> proposing that the government supply beer, wine, vodka, 
> scotch, etc.  And if I ever have misfortune to get caught up 
> in one of the sweeps please remember that while I can 
> tolerate a generic Two Buck Chuck red I would really prefer a 
> nice old-vine Zinfandel...

{8^D  

I am told that grain alcohol can be distilled for about 4 bucks a gallon.

> What if this person is saving up money for first and last and deposit for
a small apartment and so is living in their car?  Are they homeless?  Are
they a vagrant?

Not at all.  Cars make an adequate temporary home.  Most of us have camped
overnight in a car, or at least spent a night or two in one at some time in
our lives.  In the summer of 1983 I would gladly have lived in a car, had I
owned one at the time.  Unfortunately one cannot live in a motorcycle, which
is all I had then.  A car would have been way better than my 12 dollar a
week aparrr... well, not apartment exactly; my 12 dollar a week wooden box
in a garage in Seattle that I lived in at the time.  One can even have a
toilet of sorts: just do it like we used to do when car camping: two cinder
blocks with a plastic trash bag.  One can shower at the local YMCA.  You can
get food still perfectly OK in dented cans from out back of the grocery
stores in the...  umm... do let me stop there.

> ...
> >  We could empty our
> > prisons of people who are there on drug charges only; 
> parole them to Darwin.
> 
> It should be pointed out that there are persons who had jobs 
> and homes and then lost it not due to drugs but due to drug 
> law enforcement.  They might not want to stay in Darwin; they 
> might want to move back to the place where they had friends 
> and family...

Roger that, and good thinking.  I have long thought that drug enforcement as
is done currently is a disaster.  I am looking for an alternative to that.
We should keep Darwin/O'Leary as a place for volunteers only.

We talk about libertarianism here.  I would propose O'Leary as a libertarian
experiment.  No outside law enforcement there at all.  The locals could set
up their own laws and arrange their own enforcement to their own tastes.

> 
> I have a parting comment.  Spike I have known you for many 
> years and I have considered you to be an intelligent person 
> as well as kind and considerate.  I do not think the solution 
> you purpose is your best work.
> I am confident that you can do better.
> 
> Fred
> 

Thanks for that Fred.  The post was intended as thought-provoking partial
jest, but here is what I really mean: society could have and should have an
out.  Dr. O'Leary urged us to "tune in, turn on, drop out."  Well, suppose I
take the doctor's advice.  Where is this out?  I understand east-west,
north-south, up-down and even future-past, but where exactly is out?  Out of
society?  If he meant that, I agree in that there should be an out
somewhere.  We have used Alaska as a makeshift out, but I can see a lot of
disadvantages, such as those long bitter winters would kill a lot of
harmless stoners.

Darwin is down in a hole, a narrowish valley so it gets some shelter from
the winds.  It's elevation is down around 2300 feet, so isn't high desert,
and at that southerly 36 degree latitude it seldom freezes.  It does get
hotter than hell down there, but not as hot as the nearby Panamint Valley,
which the Charles Manson gang used as their out.  It isn't fatal hot, just
uncomfortable hot, and even then only for a couple months.  It already has a
deep well and a highway and even a railroad, so it could be easily supplied
with the basics (two buck chuck, no nice old-vine Zinfandel, sorry Fred.
{8^D)  It is near enough to civilization but not too near.  The land is
practically worthless, so it wouldn't cost too much to convert.

We could make an out there.  We could use it for at least the addicted
homeless.  The rest of the homeless we would need to find another solution,
but I see O'Leary as a workable partial solution. 

spike