The people calling themselves the “City of Keene” have offered Hundred Nights, the local privately run homeless shelter and drop-in resource center, $11,000 for 2013.
The shelter has never taken government money before, and as you might expect, there are strings attached. According to Hundred Nights founder Don Primrose, “By accepting money from the City of Keene, we would be expected not to speak out on issues of the homeless and displaced in our area.” Primrose explained further that, “I am guilty, of speaking out on issues that I am compassionate about and some of those issues have to do with an existing homeless shelter network that is disrespectful of individual rights and controls people’s voices and lives through fear.”
To be clear, Primrose is talking about the government-funded homeless shelters in town. Naturally the people calling themselves “the city” and “state” pose as though they are looking out for the downtrodden, but the reality suggests they are just looking out for themselves. Sure, some of their workers probably care about the homeless, but the government gets your money every year through taxes regardless of whether they do a good job with it. Charities like Hundred Nights only get your money if they do a good job and are of value to the community.
Speaking of value, the Hundred Nights “Open Doors Resource Center” is open year-round and is a constant resource for people down on their luck. It’s available weekdays all day and helps people with resume-building and job-seeking. In addition, the shelter itself is open for the coldest 100 nights of the year, providing a life-saving service to anyone who needs help, including those literally left-in-the-cold by the state system.
Primrose is admittedly tempted to take the state money, as times are tough. The economy is down, which only increases the burdens on shelters, while funding may be more challenging to obtain. That said, with a little effort from a relatively small group of people, we can match or exceed the government’s $11,000 in hush money. If we can do this before mid-January, Hundred Nights will continue as the area’s only independently run shelter.
Can you contribute $10 per month? If you and 99 other people do that via the “SUBSCRIBE” button at the top left of HundredNights.org, the shelter’s fundraising goal will have been surpassed. Please take a moment and do this today, then, share it with your friends!
Rick Van Wickler is the superintendent of the Cheshire Department of Corrections, which operates the county jail, aka the Keene Spiritual Retreat. Rick has for years been speaking out against the insane “War on Drugs”, which is really just a war on our friends and family. Here’s his recent appearance as part of the Beyond Bars “Safekeepers” campaign, where he explains his path to finding compassion for the people he is tasked with keeping in a cage, many of whom don’t belong in jail, but are forced there by an inhumane system. Van Wickler brings a level of humanity to an operation where it’s normally hard to find. I really appreciate that we have him running the Cheshire jail, rather than some sadist, as is frequently the case in other “Departments of Correction”:
The United States Senate has passed an amendment to Section 1021 of the NDAA that in theory would forbid the President from ordering the indefinite military detention of American citizens. The amendment is far from perfect as the Federalist Society overviews in an excellent blog.
Being a lifelong New Hampshire resident, I find it particularly embarrassing that our own Senator Kelly Ayotte (R) (who talks a good game about our “Live Free or Die” motto) voted against this. How can one “Live Free” when they’re subjected to indefinite military detention, on American soil, without access to the court system?
If someone proposed something like the NDAA for white men in 1950s, a visit to HUAC would have been called for. The NKVD did this stuff, not us. It is absolutely “Un-American” to deny the accused the right of access to the court system.
Some local liberty activists and other concerned locals made an appearance this morning on WKBK‘s “Talkback” as Keene Police Chief Ken Meola was interviewed by former city councilor Cynthia Georgina and current city councilor James Duffy.
During the series of calls, Meola defends the BEARCAT’s alleged use in rescue situations and its militaristic olive green color. He refuses to paint it pink in support of breast cancer research, or even red to be more obvious as an alleged “rescue” vehicle. Cop Block‘s Pete Eyre calls with a challenging question about the contradiction in KPD’s mission statment which is to ostensibly “protect” people, but yet they must first violate those same people in order to get the money to “protect” them. Pete’s question is so challenging in fact, that the only response the hosts can muster is to ignore his question, hang up, then busy out the phones for the remainder of the hour!
Additionally, Meola explains that he refuses to speak with me because he doesn’t like my behavior and the “attacks” on his officers that I “allow” on Free Keene. He claims that the radio was an inappropriate place for me to ask him about this, and I would agree, however I’ve asked him in person and via email, and he refuses to even acknowledge my presence! Of course, I’m not alone in this rude treatment by a so-called “public servant”. He also ignores independent newsman Dave Ridley in this video taken outside a Keene city council meeting.
So, Ken, let me see if I’ve got this straight: (more…)
Earlier this month passed another Veterans Day, which formerly commemorated the signing of the armistice which would end Europe’s World War the first. Often forgotten in the celebration associated with the cessation of war are the victims who suffer from its ills long after alleged peace deals are signed. The effects of WWI on the culture of the US and the world were not fully actualized as events were transpiring. If history was any indicator, the nation would find itself in the same brutish death trap just over a generation later.
Conscientious objectors at Camp Lewis, WA. Nov 1918
A violent militarism, which could be described as an antipacifism, swept the United States, with an even stronger sentiment arising in the more war-ravaged Soviet Union. One of the darkest examples of this hostility towards civilians during WWI is the treatment of pacifist Hutterites following the draft which began just over a year before the war would come to an end. While saukerkraut makers were changing their product names to ‘Liberty Cabbage’ and South Dakota was banning instruction of the German language in government schools, four members of a 400 year old pacifist, communalist Christian sect received draft notices to risk their lives in Europe for the mythical Uncle Sam. Perhaps it was by chance and perhaps deliberately that four names from an antimilitant community found their way onto the draft register. There had already been tension building between the area Hutterites and their neighbors, as the community had refused to buy war bonds the year prior. (more…)
The people calling themselves the “City of Keene” have offered Hundred Nights, the local privately run homeless shelter and drop-in resource center, $11,000 for 2013.
To be clear, Primrose is talking about the government-funded homeless shelters in town. Naturally the people calling themselves “the city” and “state” pose as though they are looking out for the downtrodden, but the reality suggests they are just looking out for themselves. Sure, some of their workers probably care about the homeless, but the government gets your money every year through taxes regardless of whether they do a good job with it. Charities like Hundred Nights only get your money if they do a good job and are of value to the community.
