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To anyone who lives in or around Memphis: Please help!

blocksonblox:

This was sent to me by the MidSouth Peace and Justice Center:

“CALL MAYOR WHARTON’S OFFICE 901.576.6000 AND CALL FOR AN END TO THE PLANNED SWEEP OF THE HOMELESS DOWNTOWN AND MIDTOWN.


This week the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center has learned that Memphis Police Department is planning a major sweep of the homeless in the Downtown and Midtown area set to begin Wednesday December 9th. 

CALL MAYOR WHARTON’S OFFICE NOW AT 901.576.6000 AND TELL HIM THE HOMELESS NEED HOMES AND SHELTER NOT HARASSMENT. 

Earlier this week Memphis Police department officers came to several homeless shelters, food pantries and day shelters and handed out cards to the homeless about a meeting with homeless service providers at Hospitality Hub Thursday. However, the homeless were also told that anyone found out on the streets, or living in vacants or catholes after the 9th in the downtown or midtown area would be arrested and their belongings would be thrown away. 

This is a moral outrage and must be stopped immediately. Memphis has no free shelters and existing homeless services are full or near capacity due to the cold weather and current economic crisis, where is the call for emergency shelters and affordable housing? This “Sweep” of the homeless will not only fill 201 Poplar at a huge cost to the taxpayers, but create further distrust between the homeless and the police and potential service providers who are working everyday to aid our brothers and sisters on the streets. 

It should also be noted that the sweep will only serve to continue the systematic push of our homeless population to the communities to the North and South of Downtown and Midtown, areas of the city which have much higher rates of vacant properties. Thus as the winter months roll on and as temperatures continue to drop, this sweep will only encourage the homeless to squat in vacants in other parts of the city. This will lead to more fires and potentially higher related emergency medical services.

This sweep is not a moral, effective or fiscally responsible solution to the issues of poverty and homelessness in our city, sadder still is that these laws seek to imprison the poor and the addicted on the heels of the holiday season. MAyor Wharton has the power to stop this illegal and imorral sweep.

CALL MAYOR WHARTON’S OFFICE NOW AT (901) 576-6000 AND TELL HIM THE HOMELESS NEED HOMES AND SHELTER NOT HARASSMENT.”

1 hour ago

December 4, 2009
reblogged via blocksonblox
quote
Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.
— Emory Austin

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
Was I ever truly over him? At one time I was sure that the answer was yes. But if seeing him again- and merely touching his hand- could peel back so many layers of my heart, then did I ever stop loving him the way you’re supposed to stop loving everyone but the one you’re with?
— Emily Giffin, Love the One You’re With

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
— E. E. Cummings

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
How do you stop loving someone? It was one of the world’s more brutal mysteries. The more you tried, the less it worked.
— Anne Brashares

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
Take one breath and then take another. Repeat these simple steps until you feel like you’re doing better. Take one breath. Let the calm of it consume you. Everybody knows that it’s never fair.
— Bright Eyes

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
photo Thanks for being awesome followers. I am convinced you are all the best ever. Whatever you believe and whatever you celebrate, I hope it’s warm, bright, and comforting. May all the joy of this magical season surround you. 
xoxo, Tara 
________
A Christmas present for you, Tumblr.
[download]

Thanks for being awesome followers. I am convinced you are all the best ever. Whatever you believe and whatever you celebrate, I hope it’s warm, bright, and comforting. May all the joy of this magical season surround you.

xoxo, Tara

________

A Christmas present for you, Tumblr.

[download]

songs

8 hours ago

December 4, 2009
reblogged via terrormarie
quote
There are those hearts that never mend again once they are broke. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.
— Kaite CaMillo, The Tale of Despereaux

15 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.
— Jodi Picoult, Handle With Care

15 hours ago

December 4, 2009
quote
There are some hurts that you never completely get over. And you think time will diminish their presence and to a degree…it does. But it still hurts, because, well…hurt hurts.
— The Story of Us

15 hours ago

December 4, 2009