10/08/2024
I had two speeches that I prepared to deliver on October 7th to Newark City Council regarding the proposed Ordinance 24-36, which will ban "camping" and send citizens to jail for a third offense of sleeping on public grounds.
Unfortunately, after the Council President elected to shut down the first opportunity for citizen comment and move on to legislation, I wasn't able to deliver my first planned speech to them, but I did deliver the second speech.
The following is the text of both speeches, starting with my first speech that I couldn't give due to the premature conclusion of our first chance for comment:
"I stand tonight for the first of what I plan to be three pre-typed out speeches prior to this Council’s impending vote on the proposal to ban “camping” on public lands in the City of Newark. I assure you that each of these speeches will be delivered within the allotted 3 minute limit arbitrarily set – though not universally enforced – by the leadership of our elected officials.
First and foremost, I want to address the question of agency that was brought up by a concerned citizen at the last full Council meeting. I have often heard over my near-40 years of life this notion that helping people somehow diminishes that person’s worth as a human being because they are supposedly robbed of important life lessons essential to survival. While I understand the point behind this belief, I can’t help but push back against it.
You see, I am the product of a single mother. As the eldest of her four children, I remember every single major struggle endured by our immediate family; starting with the first experience we had with homelessness when I was 8 years old. I have discussed what it was like sleeping in a tent on a campground in the summer of 1993 in a “vacation” which lasted much longer than any other family’s. A vacation which included cold early-morning baths with gallon-jugs of water after we went through a daily routine of burning ticks off of our skin.
I won’t go into how we became homeless – except to say that it had nothing to do with my parents being out of work, on drugs, or having mental health issues, as each of my parents were healthy, clean, and working at the time -, but I will say that after my parents divorced, my mother often had to get help from government programs to ensure that us kids were taken care of.
Did that off and on experience of my early life produce useless drains on society? No. Rather, despite our struggles as well as our mother’s early demise thanks to cancer the four of us kids have found varying degrees of success in our existence. My oldest sister owns her own home that she helped build. My youngest sister lives on her own without any help in Columbus. My brother has been surviving without any government help for the past 7 years. And me? Well, I stand here as the proud father of two amazing kids, as a manager of a local grocery store, and a citizen who refuses to sit back and watch injustice in silence.
So, as we contemplate the path ahead, I ask that you consider the story of my family as well as that of so many others like mine. Because of a system which saw our worth and sought to help lift us up instead of drown, we were able to prosper in our own small way. While we may not be completely out of the woods, the agency that was restored to us has given us a second chance. A second chance that I hope we will collectively give to the downtrodden unfortunate enough to live outside of a home. Thank you."
Now, here is the second speech which was delivered:
"Is the proposal coming soon for your consideration a “criminalization of the homeless”? Members of council have protested the notion that this is effectively what will happen, and I hope to explain why it is that we can justifiably argue that the proposed ordinance to ban “camping” will effectively criminalize the state of homelessness in Newark.
Consider, for a second, the three basic things which all animals – including us humans – must do. For starters, all animals must consume both water and food. Secondly, all animals must then dispense with what they’ve consumed. But, what is the third and unavoidable part of life which is inescapable for all animals…including us? Sleep. We can not survive without the required minimum sleep that our bodies need. It is this last part which serves as the key factor in asserting that your proposed ordinance criminalizes the homeless, for it punishes the citizens of Newark who dare to exist outside the confines of four walls.
If you will indulge in a thought experiment with me for a second, I ask that you imagine if Licking County as a whole followed our lead in adopting this ban. Then, what if every county in the United States followed one by one? Where would the growing homeless population of this country go? Do you even care, or is this just the latest version of someone saying they want the crisis to be handled as long as it isn’t in our backyard?
In reading and listening to the concerns of the citizens who’ve been crying for help in dealing with criminal activity, I have noticed that nothing about this ordinance actually addresses the bulk of their concerns; unless we presuppose that all homeless people are criminals with a goal of chasing them away. A man wielding an ax will still be able to appear in front of our neighbors houses. People will still be able to roam the streets late at night. Getting scared by some mystery person shouting in windows will not be stopped. No, these concerns will not be dealt with here, because each of those cries for help require more police, not banning people from sleeping on benches; and unfortunately hiring more police requires money that our officials claim we do not have while they approve their own pay raises using our tax-dollars once every four years.
Giving you the benefit of the doubt, however, I will say that it is possible that your intentions mean well. You may not mean to be cruel, but the end result of this proposed ordinance will be cruelty by the force of law. Even so, it is incumbent upon the people we elect to push back against the lies which allow this resentment for those suffering to fester, lest your goal is the exploitation of fear.
Finally, to my fellow citizens of this city I have called home for 31 of my 39 years of life, I ask that you consider the manipulation of your emotions by those in power. After all, we are all one crisis away from being homeless ourselves and being criminalized by an ordinance written with the purported best of intentions. Thank you."
Remember, City Council will decide the fate of our local homeless population on Monday, October 21st at 7pm at 40 W. Main Street (Newark, Ohio) when they vote the proposal up or down.
PLEASE plan to show up and stand against this draconian proposal.
We do have options if and when they pass it, but it is important that they see and hear your opposition to such a callous approach to policy.
Mark your calendars and stand with our downtrodden brothers and sisters!
