Friday, February 20, 2009

some things i learned in seattle

- 30% of homeless men in Seattle (and apparently this holds true nation-wide) are military veterans. (I had no idea. I wonder how this compares with Canada).

- Jonathan and Melanie and the Seattle Mennonite Church are doing good and important work with the homeless in the Lake City area, where there are very few services available. (SMC hosted my concert last night, and the "price of admission" was a non-perishable food item for the "drop-in" program.)

- A few members of the "drop-in" community on Lake City Way are songwriters. Within seconds of walking in the door, Angel asked me "are you the singer?" and launched into a song she wrote, and Niko spent a good part of the morning entertaining us with songs he's written about, and for, various local people.

- And here's what I'm guessing is the most expensive "home" in the city... it was introduced to me as "the biggest and most expensive single-use facility in North America"... a building that is used 7 days per year... 7 "home games" for the Seattle Seahawks football team...



... a few more minutes to take advantage of the free wireless internet at this coffee shop (it is Seattle, after all!), and then it's "all aboard" the "Empire Builder" for Minneapolis/St. Paul...

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1 Comments:

At 9:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your comment on the homeless in Seattle struck me. I think I first noticed it in San Diego a year and a half ago. I think I also saw some of it in Portland Oregon last fall. On the one hand, we just don't have the number of the US has. In most places are climate doesn't allow them to be on the street. In between the Korean war and Vietnamese war and Afghanistan, not that many of our vets were probably that traumatized to turn that much to drugs and end up on the street.
- Lorne Brandt

 

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