8/29/2012, 3:12 pm
I was sitting at the stoplight this morning, waiting for the left turn arrow so I could swing into Panera bread to pick up a White Russian Mocha Latte before donning my pink vagina costume and proceeding to downtown Tampa for today's protests against the RNC. Impatient, I pulled out my iProg to surf the 'net where I came across this alarming news article:
Romneyville protest camp reality not matching the dream
Romneyville, a Tampa-based haven of progressive activists, occupiers, fellow travelers, and anyone looking for a safe place to share their hatred of Mitt Romney during the RNC and beyond, is broke and needs help.
They have neither food nor shelter:
Who will feed these multitudes? Who will provide them with food? Who will give them brand new tents so they don't get hot in the blazing sun, or drenched in the sudden afternoon thunderstorms? WHO?With hardly any donations coming in, there is no money to feed people camped there and not enough tents to keep its estimated 180 occupants shielded from the blazing sun or sudden afternoon thunderstorms, said the Rev. Bruce Wright, one of the tent city's founders.
Just think! That's hundreds more people who could've been starving and in need of shelter! That's what Romneyville is supposed to be! A place where hundreds—no, thousands—are dying each day from starvation and thirst and violent weather caused by global warming! A place that is the ultimate showcase for what all of America would look like under the bloody oppression of a Romney Regime!Wright said the camp, which sits in a commercial lot behind the Army Navy Surplus Market and an adjacent gravel lot at 1312 N. Tampa St., should have had about 300 people living there, planning rallies, speaking out on the plight of the homeless and protesting the convention.
The threat of Tropical Storm Isaac and the 3,500 extra police officers
hired for convention security could have scared hundreds of people off, Wright
said.
Because there's homeless, and then there's political homeless. Some homeless are just more equal than other homeless. That's inequality under the Romneyregime!But Romneyville has other problems. Over the past four months, at least 30 people, mostly the homeless, have been booted out of the camp for violating a policy of no drugs and alcohol.
"We need to help (the homeless), but we're a political homeless camp," Wright said. "We need to maintain decorum."
Hm, Tarah's plight sounds familiar to me. And with an 11-month-old son, if I count back correctly using the People's Math™ , then it turns out I did indeed raise awareness of her plight here at The People's Cube.Tarah Colon, who is living in Romneyville with her 11-month-old son, said she's also experienced problems living there.
"Someone stole our money," she said. "If we don't raise $200 ... we won't be able to pay for the vans" to get home.
Comrades, as I read this article, I was so appalled by the plight of the good, brave residents of Romneyville, so swept up in their courageous, heartbreaking story, that I almost didn't hear the idiot behind me blaring his horn at me because the light had already turned and I hadn't even realized it. I had no choice but to continue driving and wonder what I could do to help.Several of its trademark pink tents that first garnered Romneyville recognition were ripped to shreds by summer storms over the past few months, Wright
said.With no new donated tents, 30 people sleep under a flatbed trailer on the property that should have been used as a stage for speeches, Wright said.
The camp has no running water and its makeshift kitchen is running low on food. Residents have hung wet clothing on a rope strung between two parking meters, or draped them over a barbwire fence.
Colon said Romneyville may not look like much, but that's the point.
"We think it's important for people to see that we are living like a third world country in the richest country in the world," she said.
Perhaps I could've told Reverend Bruce Wright (and ask him if he's any relation to Jeremiah, because I'll bet no one's ever asked him that before) to collect $8,000 and then he'd have enough to buy new tents and some food. Maybe I could've e-mailed him the URL number of some public resource or government agency that could help him with his dilemma. Or maybe I could just drive down there and give him a hug, if only the traffic between here and there wasn't such a bitch right now because of all the Republicans and cops.
By the way, if anyone knows if those people are still down at Romneyville suffering starvation and heat stroke, then maybe there's something we can do collectively to help them. I thought maybe we could all dress up in tents and march through downtown Tampa to raise awareness of the terrible things happening in Romneyville. Or maybe we could all gather in a recording studio and record a song and whatever's left over after expenses and royalties, we'll give to Romneyville.
Or maybe just writing this blog from the basement of my parents' $450,000 $93,000 McMansion will be enough to motivate someone out there to take steps to act.
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Commissarka Pinkie is a regular contributor to The People's Cube, and is renowned and admired by the masses for her dedication to raising awareness of how much she cares. When she isn't busy making an issue out of everything, she enjoys spending other people's money, occupying other people's property, and beating proles with her shovel.
