I know political tribalism is a fiercely defended component of our current political system, but a flowchart I saw recently on X provides a great visual example of what actually catalyzes political change in individual lives. Spoiler: it’s NOT the rational analysis that comes with comparing and contrasting abstract political ideologies.
For me, kids were definitely a factor in my own shift in political thinking, but not as much as working at a homeless shelter for 7 years. More than anything else, it was seeing the absolute failure of Missoula’s non-profit sector, along with collusion coming from certain bad-faith actors in authority, that changed my stance toward a lot of issues that have national reach from local roots.
Yesterday I tried taking a simple bike ride and, because of where I live, that meant crossing the river by using the California Street bridge, the one where Clay Salcido was viciously stomped to death by two drunk teenagers. Before getting to the bridge I heard someone yelling, so I took out my phone and recorded a short clip. The yelling you’re about to hear continued long after I stopped recording, and could be heard from the other side of the river.
After getting downtown the sound of mental illness was replaced by the sound of sirens. Why?
Apparently a street character I’ve become familiar with this summer was having some kind of medical issue, and these types of call generally include the trifecta of law enforcement, private EMTs, and public firefighters. After taking him away, I saw this guy back in the exact same location just hours later, hassling some day drinkers outside Al and Vics for a cigarette (to be fair, he was going to pay a dollar for one).
I’m going to include an image of this dude since we don’t get mugshot pics anymore because his behavior has been VERY aggressive, including starting a physical fight at the XXXXs, then getting arrested after going up to people eating outside the Iron Horse and spitting in their food.
I heard recently how much my former employer, the Poverello Center, detests what I’ve turned into after the combined failure of their “help”, along with the Sheriff’s Office’s involvement, in the euthanization of Sean Stevenson and the murder of Lee Nelson, who was targeted by Charles Covey while Lee was staying at the shelter.
It’s no secret that addiction and mental illness can be factors that increase the risk of violence, so it’s not surprising that ANOTHER brutal assault occurred on the property of the Johnson Street Shelter, which is overseen by my former employer until it finally gets shut down next month. Here’s an excerpt from the media platform that regularly reports on these acts of violence, KGVO:
Multiple officers began reviewing the surveillance video, which captured the entire incident. It appears that Doe is exchanging words with Lockyer from across the parking lot, who was wearing, at that time, a light brown baseball cap, a white short-sleeve button-up shirt with the buttons undone, a black undershirt, and blue jeans. Officers noted that Lockyer was not presently wearing the white short-sleeved button-up or the light brown baseball cap.
The surveillance then captures Lockyer punching Doe in the face multiple times. Lockyer then gets on Doe’s back and places his arm around his neck. Lockyer uses his other hand to grab his arm and continues to pull backwards in a rear-naked choke. Both parties fall to the ground and lie between the building and a concrete parking curb.
Lockyer continues to hold Doe in the choke until Doe passes out. Lockyer is captured letting go of the choke, and he proceeds to punch or elbow Doe in the head multiple times while he is already unconscious.
Doe’s body then turns towards the parking curb, and Lockyer positions his body on top of Doe’s upper torso and head. Doe’s body then appears to go into a full seizure and starts convulsing on the ground next to the parking curb. Other people begin walking towards Doe, and Lockyer gets up and walks away.
With all this local context in mind, how is Trump going to move the needle on his July 24th Executive Order, which opens up like this:
With so little in terms of actual programmatic help for hardcore street addicts in Montana, I struggle to see how an executive decree will do a goddamn thing about what decades of failure have allowed to metastasize across the country.
In the retarded petri-dish of Missoula, I suspect the arrival of winter will do more than anything a president can do to shield citizens from the visible evidence of our national failure, and beyond that I don’t think there will be any real discernible impact from Trump’s executive action. I hope I’m wrong.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading.