Posted on 08/08/2019 6:26:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
My column last week was written in response to what has become the typical claim of the political class during election season: Increasing numbers of Americans are helpless victims whose problems can only be solved by government.
Using homelessness as an example, I compared the expensive failures of government in cities like Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, with the success of Community First Village, a privately funded initiative in Austin. Starting small and focusing on the needs of a few, Community First has grown in just three years to the point where it is preparing to house and help 500 people -- nearly 40% of Austin's chronically homeless population.
This week saw another example of the "can-do" attitude of private citizens. Scott Presler, a young conservative activist from northern Virginia, used his substantial social media following (he has over 300,000 followers on Twitter) to organize a one-day trash cleanup in Baltimore -- a city whose problems have recaptured the nation's attention since President Trump tweeted about it being "rat and rodent infested" two weeks ago.
I spoke with Presler two days after the cleanup, which was, by any definition, a success. Presler stated that he was motivated to call for citizen action when he noticed that "politicians, pundits and prognosticators" criticized the president, but "no one was offering to put on gloves and go help."
Using the hashtags #BaltimoreCleanup and #AmericansHelpingAmericans, Presler offered people the opportunity to volunteer or donate through his website, ScottPresler.org. One hundred and seventy people from Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Ohio signed up, but Presler estimates that perhaps 100 more showed up on Aug. 5 to help in the west Baltimore neighborhood at the intersection of North Fulton and Westwood Avenues. Working in two-hour shifts, volunteers -- including local residents -- cleared out 12 tons of trash in 12 hours.
Presler and his team of volunteers remind me of the Cajun Navy -- dozens of Americans from Louisiana who took their boats to Houston for rescue operations when state and federal government agencies were overwhelmed after Hurricane Harvey's deluge. Unofficial branches of the Cajun Navy have popped up all over the country.
One would think that such efforts would be uniformly praised. But an NPR article raised questions about the Cajun Navy after the fact, asking whether the members were "heroes or hindrances" to government relief efforts. It sounds a little like sour grapes -- private citizens make the government look bad. But participants in those volunteer efforts said that government responses to crises are, as the article said, "broken, or, at best, inadequate." And even the most effective government cannot do everything.
Presler's critics strike the same cynical tone. The Baltimore Sun wrote a snarky editorial in which it questioned Presler's motives and griped that his efforts reinforce "the tired image ... (t)hat the poor people in this dilapidated city can't take care of their own neighborhoods and all the public officials around them have failed as well."
Perhaps the author(s) should talk to Presler or the residents themselves. According to Presler, residents of the neighborhood where he and his crew cleaned said that the city of Baltimore actually owns many of the abandoned buildings where the trash piles up but that city trash haulers come by only about once a year. Locals made clear that they love their city, but many are elderly, and while they can and do keep their own properties tidy, they cannot handle the volume of illegal dumping that takes place at empty buildings and lots nearby.
Is that not a failure of government? Presler's own experience with Baltimore city government was no better. Despite multiple inquiries and efforts, he was unable to get permits to have dumpsters at the cleanup site. The permit applications weren't denied, Presler explained; nothing was done at all. Private donations paid for the dumpsters that were brought to the site (lack of a permit notwithstanding), filled and carried away one at a time, as well as the portable toilets, food and water needed for the volunteers. (Presler says he finally heard from the city of Baltimore two days after the cleanup; his permit request was denied.)
Presler is an unabashed conservative, but he is adamant that this effort is apolitical. "It's an act of love," he said. "Just Americans helping Americans." Residents of the neighborhood who are the beneficiaries of the help certainly seem to get it. And local business owners offered to help with this cleanup, and future cleanups. "The response warmed my heart," Presler says.
Positive responses aren't limited to Baltimore. Presler told me that he has been overwhelmed by the reaction. "We've already gotten inquiries from Atlanta, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles," he said. No doubt more will inquire. But that is precisely what should happen -- one small act inspires dozens more.
Presler's main message is philosophical, not political. He is unfailingly optimistic -- a sentiment that is refreshing in a political climate fraught with rancor and vitriolic accusations. He points to the helpful and grateful attitudes of the cleanup participants and west Baltimore residents alike as proof of what Americans are truly capable of. "Don't look at the color of our skin; look at our actions," he said. "One person can make a difference. One tweet from me started a movement that's taking the country by storm."
Presler's enthusiasm is matched only by his sense of humor. He closed saying, "I'm just trying to make America clean again."
Even a small number of upbeat, committed activists like Scott Presler can transform America. And no, we don't need the politicians in order to do it.
This is what we need. Glad he started the ball rolling.
Besides clean up, what else can we do in large numbers.
I know a lot of folks help as individuals.
Trying to think of something for kids besides backpacks.
FR is the forum of ideas.. let’s roll.
You can’t be responsible for someone else’s irresponsibility. You can only try, fail, and become frustrated.
Ahhh. Refreshing. The American Spirit is still out there in oppressed enclaves and dark corners of our great nation.
Trying to set a good example for others to follow does not work. I’ve tried. It’s just another enabling factor for the lazy. This group should not have cleaned any mess.
The perfect example of an exercise in futility.
While the baltimore cleanup was a nice gesture, six months to a year the trash will be back.
This is what Marvin Olasky was writing about almost 30 years ago, and it hasn’t changed because human nature hasn’t changed.
“Affiliation: Reconnection or involvement of family
Bonding: Personal relationship development with the poor
Categorization: Different individuals require different help
Discernment: The tool for categorization provided through bonding
Employment: Work should be required
Freedom: Liberty to rise or fall
God”
I saw his interview on FNC a couple days ago. My first thought was bless his heart (the Southern meaning). Sure, he’s trying to do the right thing but whatever he picked up today will be trashed out again tomorrow. None of the Baltimores or Chicagos will change until the people get some self responsibility going and clean up their own mess.
Look at Africa. It doesn’t matter how many water wells and latrines someone else digs for them, they still contaminate their drinking water and can’t figure out how to dig their own holes. No matter how many times they’re given free condoms, they still spread AIDS willy nilly. Seeing their friends and family dropping dead from whatever deadly disease they’re getting from eating bush meat and keeping unsanitary living conditions doesn’t faze them enough to change their ways. Africa, Baltimore, Chicago. It’s all the same. Let someone else do for them because they’re too lazy to do for themselves. They’d rather die in their own excrement and let the rats eat their corpses.
Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottPresler or visit his website ScottPresler.org
He ‘walks the walk.’ He will travel anywhere in the country to teach people how to register to vote, and received good turn outs for this and he will stand on busy street corners with a sign that says:
“3.6 million black kids live in poverty. Why do Democrats choose illegals aliens first?”
*Trying to set a good example for others to follow does not work. I’ve tried. It’s just another enabling factor for the lazy. This group should not have cleaned any mess.*
I guess Trump shouldn’t be cleaning up the messes from previous administrations then, should he? I, for one, am grateful for his leadership. He has inspired me to not give up.
And is proof that demoRATS can’t do an F N thing for Demselves!
What a waste of time and effort. In a month or two the democrat deadbeats who LIVE THERE and created the mess, will turn it into a hell hole all over again.
This us so typical. The DemonRAT controlled areas turn into hell holes as a direct result of their corruption, their policies, and their failed management and then, like fools we come to their rescue, turn around and spend our time, and our treasure into temporarily fixing their mess. Then we leave and voila... in short order, they turn it into a hell hole all over again.
As long as we foolishly continue to come to their rescue they will continue to vote DemonRAT.
The real solution is to STOP ENABLING THEM. Let them lay in the cesspool bed they have made until they wake up and vote the DemonRAT bums out who created the mess in the first place! And if the people who live there don’t care and can’t be bothered, then too bad.
It’s not our problem!
I liked to 20-year old newspaper copy.
Obama thought he was cleaning up Republican messes. Did that make you follow him? I would take issue with any premise that Trump is really cleaning up D.C. anyway. We had a tax cut once.
I think we are fifty years in with that tactic and have no appreciable results to show for it.
Presler is proving that a few motivated citizens are far more effective than government so maybe he can inspire a few locals to pick up a broom and emulate. Democrat carrots and Republican sticks have proven equally ineffective.
The Democrat politicians, criminals, and druggies (but, I repeat myself) will assure the rot continues. That clanking you hear are the chains of the honest locals.
I have been disappointed with the leadership and representation in Congress from both parties for quite some time. I was giving up hope that anything could be done. Trump is showing people that there are solutions if they just get the bureaucracies out of the way. Same as Presler. I work on my own little corner of the world doing what I can to show personal responsibility and respect for myself and others, but I am sure glad that Trump has taken on things at the federal level.
Note that they didn't say "untrue", just "tired" (as in we're tired of hearing that crap!).
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