Posted on 06/13/2019 9:21:04 AM PDT by simpson96
IN A SENSE, Damian Monda grew up in The Jungle. But in the 1960s, it wasn’t yet an infamous homeless camp, Interstate 5 hadn’t been completed, and it wasn’t even known as The Jungle. It was just a neighborhood of abandoned old homes.
But there were homeless people there, even then.
Damian and his brothers and their friends would hike down the hill from Pacific Tower, where his family lived in the doctors’ quarters, to explore the empty homes. Entering them was like a dare.
“It was dangerous and it was cool, and we were always afraid that we would run into somebody,” Damian says.
And they did. At first, they avoided homeless camps, but one day, Damian talked to a homeless man. The man didn’t seem scary. He asked whether they had food, so Damian started sneaking out canned salmon his dad had caught to give to the man.
Throughout his life, Damian has watched The Jungle grow and morph, the abandoned homes replaced by tarp tents. A licensed pilot, he even could see it from the sky as he flew into Renton, before the camp was cleared out by order of the mayor.
Today, Damian goes to homeless camps several times a week and, some weeks, every day. The Jungle has become more of a concept: There are now little Jungles all over the south side. One woman who lived there says, “There’s a Jungle and a half.”
Homeless people know Damian, and they know his wife, Debbie; the pair brings instant coffee, hot chocolate, sanitary wipes or Debbie’s signature banana-nut bread.
Damian and Debbie are not associated with any organization. They’re Catholics, but they don’t do this as part of their parish, and they don’t witness to anyone. They’re not “bleeding-heart liberals,” they say.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
How did his father catch ‘canned salmon’?
With a canned pole.
Or a cane pole.
A sweeping, patronizing glorification of educated, able-bodied bums.
My favorite part is when there’s a picture of some wood scraps thrown on the ground.
“And look! Here the residents have made a boardwalk...”
“And what fine parents they are! Here, a soiled, homeless girl enjoys her birthday...”
“Look at the clever man who has learned how to burn wood for heat! Perhaps he bravely chops down tax-paying residents’ trees...”
“Oh! Such a clever lady! She does so many nickel bags she’s called her home Nickelville...”
WTF happened to our beloved America? Every American city is now a sh*thole run by these a-hole insane liberals. A good portion of our states are finished. They don’t lie that they want to complete the job with these current psychopath candidates for prez.
The best activism locally was the lady who went and stood on the underpass were the locals were always panhandling with a sign that said "Stop giving my kids money for heroin".
They had an article about her, and yes, her kids were doing heroin.
It's been two years but no one panhandles there anymore.
Ongoing and growing insanity.
There is a reason why we say, “do not feed the bears!”
The bears need to go find their own food. These people need to work for their food!
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