Blog, I

For many reasons, I chose to see this movie until just now.

I’ve had mixed feelings over the movie, some to do with it’s marketing, some to do with the portrayal of the family portrayed. Maybe because I needed to just wait and let myself heal so I could simply experience the movie for being just that…a movie.

I thought Will Smith was very genuine in his portrayal, and the movie moved through stages really well.

I also got emotional at seeing the portrayal of what the dad went through, trying to connect so many dots day to day while experiencing homelessness, like trying to push a bone scanner he invested so much in to while keeping his head together.

It’s almost like me still wanting to give IWC a chance at being seen sometimes.

Can Chicago End Homelessness? | TIME: “Those who do not have their own housing, yet are able to ‘double up’ with friends or family, are not considered homeless by the city or the federal government.”

I just sent an email to the editor of Time Magazine on them making a mistake. The McKinney Vento Act; that protects educational rights of children experiencing homelessness; has very clear standards of what constitutes homelessness.

I don’t doubt the reporter’s hearts weren’t in the right place. It’s just probably a matter of service providers there not taking the time they should have with them.

This afternoon I stopped by The Toy Factory searching for something you can’t find elsewhere. Being a guy and all, when I saw the collection of horse figurines, it brought memories of my aunt that was enthralled by them. I don’t know of many girls my daughter knows who are into them or painting. Her being as creative as she is, I thought a paint by number Appaloosa would be a great start to a collection if she chooses.
That, and it shut her up. Remember…fourteen year old GIRL!

Earlier today while dawn was breaking, I was able to see the effects of smoke from Georgia again entering Duval County from it’s north side. Last night we got word of the fires in Allachua and Bradford Counties…two that formed into one fire…displacing people to evacuate to one of three different locations set as emergency shelters. Haven’t gotten word what the cause was. Considering the Georgia fires were reported as arson at some time, seeing two fires come up in Florida so close together in seperate areas…makes me wonder if it’s not accidental, or possibly the same person if it were arson.

Around noon I went into our breakroom where three of the supervisors were chatting and mentioned something to my boss. He coughed. I coughed. Each time we tried to talk, it came out as coughing. When I breathed in deeply, I swear I could smell the scent of smoke, even though we were in an air conditioned location…more so strange since I’m a smoker and shouldn’t notice it as much.

Which leads back to the picture above, a shot along an entry ramp to an interstate. Nearby, five men sleep regularly underneath the overpass. They’re regulars, known in the area, harmless and keep to themselves. With the temperature changes, humidity fluctuations, and five minute showers in the afternoon if anything they’re outside day and night breathing in this stuff constantly.

Around the corner, I had just passed a family known to mine that resided in the shelter at different periods during our stay there. The mom’s sitting outside with her three children waiting for the local bus. The oldest is in kindergarten, the other two en-tow. She’ll get downtown and transfer at the main terminal to get the kid to school on time. She’ll then have to wait for the next bus at the school to make the double bus trip back to the hotel. It’ll take almost four hours til she gets back to her room there.

She’ll be there for two hours and have to head out again to get her son. Her total cost for the day if she doesn’t have reduced or free tickets will be $30.00…forty one way trips at a cost of .75 each. Just for making sure her son is in school and her children with her going back and forth.

Granted, if she has the money to fork out for bus passes and tickets in advance, she could get some slack cut. She’s got the hotel room to be paid. Hopefully the food stamps don’t have problems with the case manager playing games.

And yeah…before some dimwit ‘good folk’ fool asks ‘HOW’ she can afford that and SHOULDN’T be homeless…
…do the math and figure out what kind of work she’s doing to keep it going.

Like I said, my wife and I knew her while in the shelter. If she’d BEEN doing THAT kind of work THEN…she would have been able to successfully get a home…and her clients would probably include more of Jacksonville’s prominent folk. She wasn’t though, and didn’t. She’s working what she has to now for the sake of her children’s survival…keeping them safe…taking them to school everyday herself.

Maybe her and some of her coworkers managed to do a babysitting co-op or something.

It’s called coping skills. It’s what parents do quietly and try to be strong in front of the kids…until they can quietly cry in their pillow when their children are snoring sweetly.

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Feel free to eMail or visit my project Homeless In Jax.

Operation Nightwatch Seattle - Emergency Family Shelter states on their site that “it is not able to serve families at this time. Please check back in the future” and a contact number for anyone with questions.

Their link for single men reads that men need a referal from a secondary source, while single women and those with children do not need a referral to be served by Nightwatch.

Real men will camp outside the door of the place their families are at.

Been doing a lot involving personal finances these last two weeks. After getting everything cleared up out of the red and into the black, I started working on budgetting. Living within one’s means is one thing…being able to see it on paper and knowing it’s happening firsthand after months of tracking is a pretty strong feeling.

Setbacks have occurred in pursuing some of the things I wanted to, due to my work schedule. At the same time, other things opened up that weren’t available. Due to the amount of time taken off from work over being ill and the court case, my wife’ll have to represent us both at the upcoming meeting at MHHCP. Hopefully she’ll be able to record notes for me to get the full benefit.

More and more I see daily the division between people over issues of homelessness. There’s rumor in the pipeline that the concept Federally of the ‘10 Year Plan To End Homelessness’ will actually mean worse situations for families experiencing it. I thought about this last week when my older son related to me what his teacher said in using him as an example.

The instructor said that if he took my son to a meeting and told the group there he’d brought his student with him, that the group would ask where he was. My son’s school is stereotypically and predominantly black. My son’s white. The example was made about stereotyping even professionals do at times, after open discussion brought up the problems some of the students going to that school face…living in cars.

One girl mentioned that she knew of a really nice young student, but wouldn’t relate further to protect her friend’s identity. The student dressed in modern style appropriate for age and gender, and unless people were told they’d think she lived well. For weeks, the student’s family had lived in their vehicle doing as well as they could.

There’s many families that use emergency shelter, not to be confused with ‘transitional housing’. But for all the families there, there’s as many or more that don’t.

Chances are you wouldn’t know it. If you could, chances are they’d need to use the services of the emergency shelters. Start out for weeks sleeping on cold tile floor, if not months. Not having ready access to toilets, running water, or cold storage for milk or medicines. Even when a family gets in a shelter, it’s not ‘all that’.

For those families, both in cars and sleeping on floors, there is no black or red ink in budgets.

There’s only getting through the day until being able to lay their head down. Sometimes for only five hours, usually interrupted hourly.

With a car, there’s at least a place to keep a cooler or space for clothes to be kept.

Image Credit: www.gregspeed.com. Click the pic to view their site please.

Both Peter Pan brand and Walmart’s ‘Great Value’ brand peanut butters gave parents a scare nationwide, after it was reported certain jars with the code ‘2111′ may contain deadly Salmonella.

For the most part, this appears to be the first ever full blown run of Salmonella through Peanut Butter in the United States. The FDA is quoted as saying that the location the jars came from was Con Agra’s Sylvester, Georgia facility. Great Value Peanut Butter is also made by other manufacturers, which means guess what between Sams/Walmart and Con Agra’s business dealings in the future?

Overall, local media, Yahoo helpers, and almost anyone who was a parent had something to say over what they were experiencing. Personally, my own home had two of the jars you see on this entry. Below are two of the more interesting accounts I found after sifting through pretty much the same information aggregated by ‘copyhounds’ on the internet:

What can’t be related is the amount of parents experiencing homelessness keeping medium sized jars available for in between meals for their kids. Peanut Butter is the ultimate ‘must have’ for anyone not having direct regular access to refrigeration. It goes with ANYTHING, when your on the streets. Luckily, I don’t know of; or heard through my sources; of any kids in shelters getting sick so far.

Valeri Ferarri says schools in Houston confiscated PB sandwiches, as well as calling parents directly.

One reader from ‘AtheistParents‘ is choosing to eat PB sandwiches when it’s on the news, one recommends mixing Vodka with it, but the most interesting account is of a Jewish Wookie named ‘Jewbacca’ who admits to falling in a vat at Conagra while smearing his raw chicken he was eating at the time on the interrior of the peanut vat.

All in all, Peanut Butter’s been one of the more trustworthy foods of Americans since it was invented. It’s considered the Black History Month Food, and unites people of all colors, faiths, and castes…unless you’re allergic to it or get a deadly case of Salmonella poisoning.

The scariest thing of this? Imagine what would have happened if two really ugly people decided to improve their sex life by introducing one of these tainted jars into their bedroom.

Explain that, ConAgra.

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Feel free to eMail. Chances are if you’ve got an issue, I’ve got your solution. If not, I’ll find it. If not then still, I promise I’ll be honest enough to smile when I try to bullshit you with it. Either way, you’ll be glad you did!

Kids forget those important papers sometimes, so we found out through the news that a child two grades higher than her. The news had this to say. What we as parents got from the school in writing was the following…AFTER…we did

‘Did you have something you were supposed to give mom and dad, honey?’

Dear Parent,

An individual has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Situations such as this occur once or twice a year in the Duval County School System.

All teachers and students identified as being at risk are being tested. If you have not been contacted, then your child was not identified as being at risk and there is no need for testing and/or medical treatment.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to call the Duval County Health Department at 630-3336.

Sincerely,

J. Alfred Bowers, M.D.
School Physician

My wife and I contacted a few individuals in the school system, but everyone’s pretty much tight lipped or honestly aren’t being made aware of what’s going on fully. This school in particular is the target school location for children in elementary ages who reside in Jacksonville’s homeless shelters downtown.

That in itself shouldn’t be scary to Jacksonville residents with homes. The scary part is towards the residents of the shelters, if in fact someone infected has carried it back and transmitted to other residents. Shelters try to be as hygienic as possible…but reality is what it is.

It’s just another thing to make you think of what parents have to deal with while in the shelter system. As for my wife and I, we’ll trust our children’s primary care physician to tell us if there’s nothing to worry about.

Does this mean the ‘infected’ kid came from there? Not whatsoever. Does it mean there’s the potential epidemic by homeless kids? Not whatsoever. The important thing is that all parties involved get out of ‘politically correct’ mode and deal with the kids needs. A number of kids have been tested positive in now two schools in Duval County.

Get them treatment, as well as the others that will need this immediately.

According to Fox 30 News, 180 students’ parents from Stanton College Prep High School recently were informed in writing their kids needed to be tested. The others received an ‘all clear’ letter. How many kids at my daughter’s school honestly were told to get tested…

…no idea.