Nah, he claims he named it after his first car or something like that.

Also, I do notice that you don’t have an 88 in your handle. Nor a 14. I’m not sure about Reddit, but most online spaces avoid these numbers because they are so commonly used by white supremacists.

Now, we can certainly make the argument that folks might not be aware of that. To which I say, now you know, go ahead and change it if you don’t want to be seen as a white supremacist in online spaces. This isn’t new. They’ve been using those numbers since the dawn of the internet. Ignorance isn’t a valid excuse at this point.

Makes a whole lot of sense to me. Also teaches good home repair skills, I’d imagine. Something we all could hopefully use.

One major hurdle I see though is where to build. Towns, counties, states, etc will have to buy the land this happens on I’d imagine. Not too many people are donating land to help others these days.

Though, building tiny homes on trailers might fix this as they can be moved when agreements about the land they are on shifts.

Exactly. Right-wing domestic terrorism has been steadily rising since the 90s but folks still want to ignore it.

The person telling everyone else to not make assumptions (while using ignorant right-wing talking points, mind you) probably shouldn't make assumptions themselves.

Huge correlation. Thanks for the link! I’ll check them out and go from there. Access to mental healthcare is a major issue and something I am passionate about as I have many loved ones who have struggled / are struggling with getting care in VT.

I wish you well wherever you landed!

I'm not familiar with the program you mention from the 90s, but will check it out.

Otherwise, we seem to be on the same page. Yes, we need federal funding/support but of course the action part of it happens locally.

Oh absolutely. Most folks do try to stay closer to where they may have family, friends, any sort of network for as long as possible, and often come back if they need to go somewhere warmer for the winter. People in general tend to also prefer to be in places they are familiar with.

That said, about half of the homeless population in our country lives in 3 places, California, New York, and Florida. The majority of those folks are not from those places originally. They migrate there because of the weather or available help/community.

While it is true that most folks TRY to stay where they have a network, they also tend to eventually burn bridges and use up available resources and they wind up moving on. Others, like yourself, stay put and eventually lift themselves out of it. I also think a lot of folks underestimate the way homeless folks utilize trains and busses to get around the country. I even met a dude from Bennington while doing outreach in Santa Monica on that cliff where everyone camps. He told me his family stopped offering any help (shelter) after a while so he made his way out there to embrace living the rest of his days on the beach (this is what he told me).

If you want to drop a link to the org your work with in central VT, I would love to donate and volunteer myself. I have done homeless outreach in NY, FL, and Los Angeles and would love to get involved here.

That's fair, but uh... I'd also bet the farm it's domestic 99% of the time.

We are balkanizing anyway. We have been doing the approach you are advocating for and the thing you are suggesting will happen if we do things "my" way is already happening while doing things your way.

Again, MLK literally disagrees with you. Maybe this is a good time for us all to reread some of his works and reflect on them. It is black history month, afterall. And don't slack on the paradox of tolerance, either.

So you want to continue to tolerate intolerance? What you describe is the failed approach we have been using for generations. It doesn't work. We need to stop tolerating intolerance, wholly and completely. Full stop.

The things you wrote in this last comment don't jive with your original statements btw. Someone as smart as you that has diversity in your life and in your family knows EXCATLY what slurs are and exactly why they aren't ok to use in this setting. Shame on you, for real. So enough of this bullshit gaslighting. If you are who you say you are, you wouldn't ask the questions you asked.

You don't have to take my word for any of this, either. Go ahead reread MLK's Letter From Birmingham Jail. Educate yourself on the paradox of tolerance. People much smarter than both of us have been trying to get you moderates to recognize this approach doesn't work for generations now. Listen to them, not me.

You want to get racism out of our communities? Make it VERY CLEAR that this bullshit isn't welcome here in any way shape or form. And when LITERAL CHILDREN tell you they are fed up with the racism they experience, shut your mouth and listen instead of trying to spark an ignorant debate about what slurs are ok. Why? Because that is racist. You are being racist. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but here we are. You know better.

Again, I'd be curious to know WHY. Winter isn't exclusive in VT. Though, if I wanted to paint a picture of this being an issue in California and a few other states and not a national issue, I'd probably choose to only count in winter too.

VT towns are EXTREMELY corrupt. State level might be slightly less so, but oh boy are you being incredibly naïve if you believe what you typed here. That, or you're a landlord. You're a landlord aren't you?

I know right? So many fragile racists getting triggered in the comments here. I totally agree with you, it's incredibly pathetic.

That's cute, but this is the second time I've found you to be possibly racist on here and you do have 88 in your handle. Most people I know are smart enough to avoid using extremely well known white supremacist dog whistles in their online handles if they aren't that.

There's this old saying about ducks that I think might apply here. I think you know the one. Something about "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck..."

This is domestic terrorism. They are purposefully trying to instill fear in people, in kids. I know this is happening all over the country and they rarely get the people, but we need to figure out a way to stamp this shit out. It’s literally terrorism and we should treat it as such.

Which is why we should have a UBI and make housing and healthcare human rights. Especially as we continue to put more robots into the workforce taking human jobs.

Edit: I’d be curious to know who made the decision to do the count in January only. Again, homeless folks are mostly migratory. They move around with the weather and with any opportunities or hope that springs up for something better than where they are. Folks that move for the winter to avoid the cold, often head back in the summers. We know this. So why do the count when the most people are not in their original “home” networks. It’s silly.

VT is grotesquely corrupt. Ugh.

That doesn’t change the fact that most homeless folks are migratory and hop a bus to warmer places for the winter. Doing the count only in January and making any conclusions from it is very shortsighted.

Nope, I learned a lot. One of the things I learned was the paradox of tolerance. I also did a lot of homeless outreach throughout the country. What have you been up to the last few decades?

I am sorry Vermont's education system failed you. You should get out and see the world a bit bro, it's not as scary as the angry man on TV says it is.

Not the dude with 88 in his handle who swears it's not because he's a white supremacist being negative towards the OP who shared an important article on racism... golly gee.

Nope. In my 40s, grew up in VT, have lived all over the country as an adult including major cities, and moved back.

You know we solve this issue? We, as a society, stop tolerating intolerance. We stop putting up with your ignorance and blind hatred of everything simply because folks like you live in constant fear. Grow the eff up and reflect on how people are reacting to your bullshit here. You're a racist. Full stop.

People like this are terrified of everything in life. It's truly pathetic.

No, fuck all of this bullshit. You stop teaching your kids to be hateful scumbags so they stop tormenting the rest of our kids. This is deranged.

It's literally all they have in life. I keep trying to tell them things are more enjoyable when you aren't afraid of everything but they won't listen to me.

People have been helping people since the dawn of man, even when we were stone age brutes. We see it everywhere in nature to. Comments like that person's are just the result of a lifetime of brainwashing. They are afraid of everything and everyone.