A Citizen's Tirade
My friend, artistic collaborator and ex wife Cindy and I sat at an outdoor table of a coffee joint and discussed our new project: a children's book (for adults) about a dog, a husky named Sonny, that helps lead a clean-up of a homeless encampment along a creek. I'm writing the words; she's supplying the watercolors.
As we discussed the book, Cindy, who happens to be an expert mimic, told me of her latest encounter with the homeless. It's a typical topic of conversation in Portland and elsewhere around Oregon, from Bend to Brookings. I believe that's a good thing, at least in some quarters. Many people are trying to understand what's going on and asking important questions of those tasked with alleviating the crisis and the homeless themselves.
Cindy's story went something like this:
In recent years, numerous zombie vehicles and RVs have parked in front of her home or across the street. One sedan had no front doors! One towed a big yellow boat!
All manner of crazy shit had unfolded in connection to these vehicles and their strange and addled occupants. Cindy had never once contacted the police although she was tempted several times.
Eventually, after a few days or weeks, the rigs did leave, and for that Cindy was thankful, although not that one time when someone dumped a garbage bag of human feces in her yard before they departed.
A digression here: I can claim that Cindy is certainly one of the most loving and compassionate people I have ever met but actions of the homeless in her neighborhood the past year had pushed her past the breaking point and that's something many of the homeless advocates don't seem to understand. With this lack of understanding, they have lost and are continuing to lose the vast good will of many Oregonians who have agreed to significant tax increases to address the crisis and practiced incredible and consistent acts of kindness toward the homeless.
It has routinely astonished and elated me that more Oregonians haven't turned toward a more aggressive vigilantism to combat or rid the presence of homelessness in their neighborhoods. I have witnessed some benign incidents of erecting barriers in front of homes and businesses, leaving strident notes, turning on sprinklers, that sort of thing, but nothing violent or hinting at the potential of violence.
Back to the story: a while back the neighborhood was free of various zombie rigs and Cindy appreciated the serenity.
Then...one afternoon...she was standing outside her house when a battered SUV towing two trailers of shit prepared to park across the street. Both the driver and the passenger were men in their 40s or 50s and exuded the unmistakable appearance of meth miscreants.
Cindy was unsure what to do when a neighbor, a man in his 50s, sprinted up to the SUV and launched into an epic tirade that Cindy mimicked with perfection that left me laughing although it was no laughing matter.
You're not fucking parking here! I'm sick of your shit! Get that piece of shit out of here. I call the cops and they don't do anything. I've been living here for 26 years and this is bullshit!...
and so on for a good five minutes.
The two men in the SUV never left their vehicle. They absorbed the tirade, said nothing, and drove away, but not before Cindy caught a glimpse of facial expressions that registered confusion: why is that man so mad?
Cindy said she thanked the neighbor and he calmed down and returned to his home. I asked Cindy what she would have done of the neighbor hadn't shown up and delivered his tirade. She said she didn't know.
I wondered what I would have done in a similar situation, which of course, could happen at any moment where I live.