I think it was the first time ever that I started my giving thanks with thanks to the US political system, specifically for federalism. Only because of that, plus our still independent Judicial system, that the Illinois government can still protect their citizen and resist the most outrageous thins that come from federal government. I am immensely proud of our state, our governor and our judges, and thankful to them!
I am thankful that I have a job which is, though intense and plainly hard as no other job I had before, makes it possible for me to earn enough money to do good to many people and support the causes that are important to me.
I am thankful to Boris who emotionally supported me through this tuff year more that ever; I am thankful that we still keep the flame of our love for so many years and do not see it fading:).
Thankful that all my children are the amazing individuals they are.
Thankful for my home, my neighborhood, and my city. I am as much at home here as i ever been in my life.
Last night, when my neighbor and I were returning from a Christmas show in the Auditorium Theater, we passed a long row of cardboard boxes that homeless people used to protect themselves from brutal overnight temperature. Nobody was panhandling. They were just trying to survive till morning.
When we got on the L-train, the first thing I saw in the new was this WBEZ article. Full text below.
As cold weather hits Chicago, Trump’s new policies on homelessness criticized
Feds said they plan to shift $3.9 billion from long-term housing to housing that requires work and addiction treatment. More than 7,500 Illinoisans could lose their permanent housing.
For people experiencing homelessness like Ivan Patterson, Monday night’s snow was another reminder to get out of the cold and into a shelter.
“It beats staying under a bridge. It’s too cold to do that,” 52-year-old Patterson said outside the Shelter Placement and Resource Center at 2241 S. Halsted in Pilsen.
The Memphis native said he’s been staying at the shelter for a week even though he holds a job at a nearby Jewel-Osco supermarket.
“I’m trying to get my apartment again, but it’s been tough. It’s too expensive,” Patterson said.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to shift $3.9 billion in long-term housing funding to transitional housing requiring work and addiction treatment.
Just as temperatures drop and the city digs out from under record snowfall, housing advocates say that the new policies could put people at risk of losing long-term shelter.
“We believe that over 7,500 people in Illinois are at risk of losing their permanent housing,” Christine Haley, chief homeless officer for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said Tuesday.
“The Trump administration is moving away from housing first. We’ve seen that this was on the horizon … in a few different ways,” she said. “Through the president’s executive order to fight crime, it talked about moving away from housing first. It talked about utilizing grants as a way to implement this new piece of really criminalizing homelessness.”
In a statement, HUD said its new policies restore “accountability to homelessness programs and promote self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans.”
But Haley said the lack of affordable housing is what is driving homelessness.
“That is the true cause of homelessness, our lack of affordable housing, lack of income to be able to afford market-rate rent,” she said.
Mark Ishaug, head of Chicago-based Thresholds, said the change in federal housing policies could force many to the streets, even during cold weather. He said that includes people of color, older adults and people with disabilities, including those with mental illness and substance abuse issues.
“We are already in a housing and homeless crisis in Chicago. If this policy were to go into effect, it would take us from crisis to catastrophe,” Ishaug said. “There are thousands of people living on the streets today. … So if we have a problem now, which we do, and a crisis now, we are moving to catastrophe.”
La Casa Norte clients go over paperwork at the agency’s North Avenue drop-in center in Humboldt Park.
Jonah Storr, associate director of programs for La Casa Norte in Humboldt Park, said it’s been an especially difficult time finding shelter for young people who are homeless.
“We see teenagers or young people who have been kicked out of their homes, or maybe have gone through the foster system and have aged out at 18. People end up here through all sorts of reasons, including young people who are trying to make it on their own,” said Storr, whose agency assists people ages 16 to 24.
Julian Martinez was standing outside the shelter placement center Tuesday afternoon smoking a cigarette. He’s been homeless for three years.
“It’s definitely hard if you ain’t got nobody out here and helping with your family,” Martinez, 23, said.
The father of a 4-year-old daughter, Martinez said he holds down a job as a landscaper, but the $200 a week he makes isn’t enough to pay rent. He’d been staying at the center for nine days.
“I usually sleep outside,” he said.
Kenyatta Mays, 56, who uses a wheelchair, said many people think he’s panhandling when he’s sitting outside the shelter on a smoking break.
Kenyatta Mays, 56, smokes a cigarette outside the Shelter Placement and Resource Center in Pilsen.
“I’m just here to get off the street. It’s too cold,” Mays said.
I went to this show at Above the Law theater last Sunday (November 23), and forgot to post about it. They are still running this show until December 21, so if anybody interested, you still have a chance to see it.
Whenever I attend Above the Law shows, I try to take mom with me, because it’s very close to home, and the theater is tinym so she can always see well (especially because she is always the first to be seated by the staff).
They rarely publish their show synopsis, but this time, there was an email with the following description:
Struggling sculptor Brindsley Miller and his fiance, Carol, are having a party with the aim of impressing Carol’s bombastic father, Colonel Melkett, and millionaire Georg Bamberger. They hope the two men might purchase some of Brindsley’s sculptures. Without permission, they have borrowed the furniture of their fussy neighbor, Harold, to make their own flat more presentable. Just before the guests arrive, the main fuse blows, plunging the flat into darkness. What follows is a frantic romp with unexpected visitors, mistaken identities, and surprises lurking in every dark corner. Only we, the audience, can see the action that ensues in the dark. As you might expect, the results are chaotic, disastrous and downright hysterical.
If I won’t read this description it would be impossible to understand what’s happening on the stage, but to be honest, even with this description, it was confusing in the beginning.
The idea is that 90% of the show time things happen in a complete darkness, because the fuse is blown. Nobody would enjoy the show in a complete darkness, so the way the set it up was that at the time the lights were suppose to be on, they went off, and vise versa. So most time, there was light, but the actors acted as if they are in complete darkness. And at the time, somebody was turning on a flashlight, the lights were dimmed.
It was funny. Probably a little bit too grotesque:). Brilliant acting, as always.
Hettie's Reflections 