Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I have been so lax in my blogging lately. No real excuse, if you don't count insanely busy chasing a two year old around the house three or four days a week!
There are a lot of things on my mind, but if you want to read one of them, you'll have to check out my blog at: MyFoxOrlando.com
I think right now I am up in the air over the Orlando Police Department and their rousting and arrests of some homeless advocates last week.
Seems the city fathers in Orlando passed a law that no one individual or group shall be allowed to feed more than 25 homeless people at any given time. I know, it sounds stupid to me too, but that's the law.
Okay, so last week, a group of homeless advocates decided to splinter off and feed the homeless 25 at a time. Well, OPD, and Buddy Dyer in the mayor of Orlando decided to stake out the advocates and, are you ready for this? Actually count the number of homeless each advocate fed.
Needless to say, this involved OPD officers hiding behind trees and shrubs or cars and actually counting the homeless that came up to be fed. And you guessed it, some of those advocates actually fed a couple more than the 25 the city allowed, So guess what? The cops arrested these people and took them to jail for violating one of the stupidest city ordinances I have ever heard of.
Now, perhaps the rich and sophisticated folks who live in those ridiculously overpriced condos downtown do have their noses assaulted by the unwashed bodies of the homeless, and maybe the homeless are an eyesore on Lake Eola, but come on folks, if you were destitute, homeless and hungry, wouldn't you rather be homeless in the relative warmth of Central Florida than say New York City or Chicago? And if you were in their place, wouldn't you be grateful that there are people out there who place human comfort and life above that one million plus condo?
Rich folks don't get it and they never will. Instead of building more condos that likely will go into foreclosure in a few years because of the outrageous price tags, why doesn't Buddy Dyer and the city fathers take some of that vacant land and/or buildings and turn them into transitional homes for the homeless and staff them with volunteers? That would keep the streets of The City Beautiful, or so Orlando likes to bill itself, clear of the rabble and the snooty rich will no longer have to be forced to realize that MOST folks don't live the way they do!
Okay, I'm done with this bit.

1 comment:

Jeni said...

Don't you just love the idiotic regulations some places can concoct though? What the heck difference does it make 25 or 250? And would that same ruling apply say to a gathering of friends/family after a funeral? How about wedding receptions? At least, feeding the homeless doesn't involve handing out anything but food - no booze for people to become stupid drunks and risk killing people after a big wedding celebration or some such thing. Or are gatherings were food is served (free) of that nature excluded from this ordinance?