A night in Safe Ground camp

I spent last night in the non-legal Safe Ground camp in one of its undisclosed locations.

Certainly, I was interested in what it is like, and for that reason I wanted to stay there [and to report about my experience in this blog]. But, also, getting shelter space is tight: I had to stay out from the mission on Thursday night and had trouble getting any sleep downtown.

So, a very sleepy Tom Armstrong showed up at the secluded site last night at about 6:15pm. My friend who suggested it would be OK for me to appear was sound asleep, so it was kind of weird on my part, I thought, for me to show up as I did. But I was immediately treated kindly, offered good hot food and a sleeping space.

There were, maybe, just ten of us there last night. Others who are regularly with the main core of campers had splintered off for the night, going to a cite in Placer county for an event that was planned.

I don't want to say too much, since I don't want to 'give away' anything I shouldn't, but the cite last night was nice and quiet and I got a great night's sleep, which I needed. There were two women there, the rest men. One of the men had a tent; the rest of us slept in bags or under blankets.

We, the folks in the encampment, didn't bother anyone. There was no fighting, no boistrousness, no substance nor alcohol use. After the night's rest, we picked up all our things and left the space very much the pristine spot that it had been.

I am hopeful that the city and county authorities, and the police, will allow the Safe Ground camp to continue with its promising program of a non-partying homeless encampment.

Good folks in the burgeoning homeless population need places just 'to be.'

Comments

Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

The Sukhothai Traimit Golden Buddha was found in a clay-and-plaster overlaid buddha statue in 1959, after laying in wait for 500 years. It's huge and heavy: just under 10 feet tall and weighs 5 1/2 tons. At the beginning of their June newsletter , Loaves and Fishes relates a story, taken from the beginning of renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's 2008 book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology . The first part and first chapter in Kornfield's book is "Part I: Who are you really?" and chapter 1 is called "Nobility: Our Original Goodness," which ought to serve as a clue to what the beginning of the book is about, not that that sentiment isn't strewn through-out the chapter, section and book such that what Kornfield is telling us should be crystal clear. Somehow, the not-ready-for-primetime management at Loaves & Fishes have managed to use Kornfield's wise and kindly words in a way that mangles th...

In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day

Calvin [a "green hat" in Unfriendly Park] makes the argument for continued incompetent management. Hobbes represents me — only, in real life, I don't have that good a coat . In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day In one respect — and only one — that I can think of, Loaves & Fishes is NOT hypocritical: The management hates the way America is run and wants to turn it into a backward communist country . Consistent with that, Loaves & Fishes’ management runs its facility like a backward communist country. The People’s Republic of Loaves & Fishes. A seemingly minor thing happened on New Year’s Day. A couple of people smoked a joint in Loaves & Fishes’ Friendship Park and one of the park directors, or both of them, determined, at about 10am, that, in retribution, they would punish all the homeless there by closing the park for the day. This is something the managers of the park do all the ...

Far-left visionaries at "Homeless Power Forum" hope to transform America [into Bulgaria?]

Poster from " Hobo Art Show " at Western Regional Advocacy Project website. Paul Boden, a keynote speaker at the Homeless Power Forum, is WRAP's Executive Director. Yesterday, "Homeless Power Forum: Vision & Survival" was held at the Delany Center at Loaves & Fishes. Thinking it was about to end (I should read my literature, dummy!), I stayed for only the first hour-and-a-half of a 5 1/2 hour program. But that was enough to hear the "keynote speakers," Ethel Long-Scott and Paul Boden, and to sound alarm bells about the direction of the Safe Ground effort. Today, I believe that the confusion that is implicit in the many meanings that have been given to safe ground , also spelled capitalized [Safe Ground], and as one word [SafeGround], is intentional: to lead people in the homeless community in Sacramento from the most positive and favorable meaning, a legal homeless campground, to a hopelessly-naive political far-far left Utopian vision o...

Sacramento Homeless blog

Search This Blog