Respect will save us in Cortez. Life will flourish as we never dreamed possible.

 [Yes, there is no version of this clip without the watermark] 

Emilio didn't knock... and that disrespect  killed him.

The principle didn't see Emilio.. and that disrespect killed them both. 

Saturday and Sunday mornings McDonald's is one of the only welcoming places for our street kin. Everything else is closed. Or unwelcoming. There are customers in this restaurant that want the street folks out. All it takes is disrespect by we Street folks and a sign like this is going to go up.

So far, the management here, is showing tremendous respect for the needs of my street kin. They are resisting putting up a sign like this. I've not been told this, but it's obvious.

With virtually no exceptions our kin on the street are there because they have been badly wounded, badly infected by toxic environments. Blame won't change that. Denial won't change that. They need help. I needed help with my stage 4 cancer. I got it.

Case management is a scalpel, whether it is held by someone in the formal system, someone outside, a church member, someone in the police, someone in the courts.... In the hands of a compassionate, committed, impossibly respectful individual, it is a life-giving scalpel.

One disrespectful instant is all that it takes, and the jugular is severed, and both individuals die. That disrespectful instant, does not have to be intentional. It just has to happen. For both individuals to die inside. And one of them quite possibly to lose their life physically or even worse to decades in prison.

 

Liberal: hey conservative, what's wrong with you. Why are you complaining about these four homeless folks being intoxicated in public, in the library, in the parks, wherever? What's wrong with you?

Conservative: hey liberal, are you taking these folks home with you? Are you inviting them to party on your lawn? Cortez is my home. Who are you to tell me what I should tolerate or not in my home?

Disrespect by conservatives to liberals is killing our homeless kin, sending them to prison, to prison labor, to physical death, and it's unnecessary.

Disrespect by liberals to conservatives is killing our homeless kin, sending them to prison, to prison labor, to physical death, and it's unnecessary.