Letter to the Editor
To those in authority who deemed it necessary to remove the cold and huddled community who found frigid refuge under Clear Creek bridge at the very spiritual gates and limits of our city:
I wonder, what goes through your mind?
Maybe we can recount history to find out what goes on in the homeless minds, hearts and souls you evicted. The message you sent to homeless veterans, senior citizens, and those with mental issues.
I suppose history does repeat itself, and the spiritual message you sent to the community of local homeless was no different than the brutal fire hoses of Birmingham. No different, really, than the foaming, snarling fangs of the police hounds of Alabama. And spiritually, repeatedly, the same thing that occured to a nation and a man on the second floor of a Memphis hotel April 4th.
And every time you raid a homeless camp.
Indeed, what will you do when “Justice rolls down like Water and Righteousness like a Mighty Stream”? Why have a Homeless Veterans Stand Down on one weekend, giving them necessary winter survival gear, and spend the rest of the year writing them tickets for sleeping outdoors, sometimes taking that gear, and evicting them on site?
If homelessness is a crime in Redding, why have a Project Homeless Connect once a year at the Convention Center? How can you have a one-day, point-in-time survey of the homeless this year with the dynamics of fear you have created? And how will you stand when finally Justice does roll down like Water and Righteousness like a Mighty Stream?
Chris Solberg
Director, Redding Loaves and Fishes
A News Cafe, founded in Shasta County by Redding, CA journalist Doni Greenberg, is the place for people craving local Northern California news, commentary, food, arts and entertainment. Views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of anewscafe.com.
