"It Ain't Right": Homeless Man at The Bridge in Dallas

I was at The Bridge (homeless shelter, 1818 Corsicana, in Dallas) yesterday, hoping to talk to someone about giving them some proceeds from my Homeless Magnets (a.k.a. the Magnet Project).

Two guys heard me talking on the phone outside and said that if I was a reporter or if I knew a reporter, they wanted to talk to someone about the conditions at The Bridge (it opened in May '08 downtown). I said that I was not currently a reporter but that I had a Blog. Latwane Thrash, 29, whose picture is below, talked to me the most. He is bipolar and said he stays at The Bridge often.



Thrash, who was very upset although he did smile for the picture, spoke to me a few steps from The Bridge and said he's seen homeless people threatened by employees at The Bridge. "It ain't right," he said of conditions at The Bridge and how he feels homeless people are treated by employees at The Bridge, which is operated by the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. "This woman smacked the s*** out of a woman," Thrash said, referring to a female employee hitting a homeless woman. Thrash did not say when this occurred.

Thrash, who was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, said that he feels employees at The Bridge have a "penitentiary mentality," in terms of the way they treat people. Thrash said he has gotten his cell phone stolen before and has gotten his clothes stolen twice while at The Bridge.

Another guy, who said his name was Ted (he was maybe in his early 30s, very pale, with 2 packs of cigarettes in his hand), spoke to me briefly, but when I looked for him again to get more information, he had disappeared. According to Ted, some employees at The Bridge only give sleeping mats to their "favorites" and some companies who pick up homeless people for a day's worth of work pay the workers less than minimum wage (this includes passing out flyers in area neighborhoods).

Thrash said he feels he has gotten low self esteem from staying at The Bridge and said he feels surrounded by negativity when he's there. "A homeless shelter like this, it's crazy."

To hopefully balance this out, I did not speak to anyone from The Bridge about their side of the story. I just felt what Thrash and Ted had to say was important. The Bridge does a lot of good and seems to have helped many people get on their feet.

Alice
xo

AAAAAAH!! ... Swine Flu is on the Prowl

Dear everyone:

Wake up! Swine Flu is not SARS or the Anthrax Scare of 2001.

Do be cautious!!!!!

But I am troubled by the paranoia that I am seeing. People are scared already about so many potential tragedies that we do not need to be overly scared about Swine Flu as well. I'll post more when I can.
Go read Andrea Mitchell's memoir (called Talking Back),
Alice

Columbine Craziness and Madness, 10 Years Later.

Anniversary of the Columbine Shootings (April 20, 1999):

I am truly saddened by the anniversary of the Columbine shootings. When I first heard about it I was a college senior and I saw it on the cover of the Detroit Free Press (back when people still read newspapers). I had to put my shock aside and go to class.
I'm not sure what our country had done since then to decrease gun violence and make guns less prevalent. I'm sure that Bill Clinton helped. My dad, Jeff, said, "all they've done since then is lift the ban on assault weapons." By "they" he meant the United STates. He is always saying quotes like that.
The Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 and also the shootings in Germany in Sept. 2008 (when I googled this, 2 school shootings in Germany came up from the past year, showing how common gun violence is) show that more work needs to be done. I feel there are still far too many guns in our society.
Yes, I am a teeny bit sick of the 24-hour news coverage on CNN and some of the other stations. But on the anniversary of the Columbine attacks, I am saddened, angered and thinking about what I remember from April 20, 1999. If you can (or if you pray), pray for the victims and their families. If not, maybe you can memorialize in some other way.
Everyone's entitled to my opinion ( I have this on a small sign in my room!),
Alice

George Bush

I promise to do a post soon. George Bush moved nearby, yuck, he is not welcome here. I do not want to see him when I go to Walgreen's.
Bye,
Alice

Homeless Crackdown in Dallas!! Your Quality of Life is in Danger.

Hi,
The Dallas police are beginning a crackdown on the homelsss and calling it their "Quality of Life" campaign. Basically they are calling it "Quality of Life" because seeing panhandlers, people sleeping on benches, etc. interferes with everyone elses' "Quality of Life." There will be 24 new police officers downtown because of this crackdown (Thanks, Roy Appleton and Dave Levinthal of the Dallas Morning News. I saw this online).

This really sticks in my Craw. There are a lot more heinous criminals they could be catching besides the man who stands on the corner of LBJ and Preston Rd. Such as rapists, carjackers, people who break into houses, and more.

There is a guy named James who sits on the corner of Preston Rd. and Royal Lane, who has no legs (he hasn't been there in a while), and a few weeks ago this cop with a HANDLEBAR moustache was giving him a ticket at a nearby gas station. I told the cop that there were a lot worse criminals he could be catching other than James, and the cop said, "Maybe so, but it's on the books, ma'am." After I said somethine small, he said, "Back Away, Ma'am!!!" and kept saying, "Back Away, Ma'am!!!" I am not a ma'am. by the way, but that's beside the point.

I do think that something needs to be done about the homeless problem, but I think that there are better ways to attack the root of the problem.

Dear Tom Leppert (mayor of Dallas),

You should donate money to a homeless cause or give money to the next homeless person you see outside of your office, instead of advocating asinine campaigns like this one. I would like to see fewer rapists and murderers on the street. And also I would like for my Neon not to get broken into outside of my home.
Sincerely,
Alice, Political Blogger
and Dallas resident


Also, the inauguration is next week, and I am NOT going. SO SAD. It is tragic that I will not be there. But I will watch the festivities on TV.
Later,
Your favorite Political Weblogista,
Alice

A Potpourri of Thoughts ... read and enjoy

So, I'm back. Lets not waste any time, shall we ...

Watching CNN a few days after the election, one of the anchors was doing an introspective piece, and he said he saw this Bible quote on a church marquee in Georgia (he saw the quote while jogging):


"When the wicked bereath rule, the people mourn."


This is insane. In my opinion, this quote is very backward and it's a little shocking that this type of mentality still exists in the world.

On to a more satisfying topic: The National Hispana Leadership Institute is trying to get more Latinas into the B.O. (Barack Obama) Administration. This way they can advocate more for Latino issues and programs that would help Latinos in the U.S. . I think this is a great idea and an important cause. To find out more, go to:

http://www.nhli.org/celina/celina_home.htm

The web site for the NHLI is:

http://www.nhli.org

I keep hearing about the Wal-Mart employee who died after being trampled Friday Nov. 28. Jdimytai Damour, 34, was working there to make some holiday money. It all happened in Valley Stream, NY. This is a SAD and TRAGIC incident and shows that our society is pathetic in some ways. Apparently some shoppers did not want to go home for the day, even after they found out someone had died (Thanks for the tidbit, Houston Chronicle).

Here is a WONDERFUL (and still relevant) quote from Thomas Jefferson:

Where the press is free, and every man (and woman) is able to read, all is safe.

I found it on the back of my Michigan Daily T-shirt. Food for thought.

Signing off for now from cyberspace on Cyber Monday,
Your Favorite Political Blogger
Alice

my new blog

Hello political junkies:

This is my new political blog, also an excuse for me to read more op-ed columns, Newsweek articles and The Nation articles.

Re: Barack Obama selecting Joe Biden as his running mate: I feel Obama made a good choice. Since I do not have time to expand right now, I am going to put in a Biden quote from a top-secret e-mail I received from the Obama campaign:

This is no ordinary time, and this is no ordinary election. I plan to do everything I can to help Barack take back the White House."
--Sen. Joe Biden

They're on a first-name basis already. Geez.

That's all for now, folks. Go register to vote. As in, Rock the Vote. Ok, I stole that from Mtv.
blogging brunette bombshell and political blogger