Re: [discuss-dan] Buying versus Rent Strike in Denver

[Persephone Moonshadow Howling Womyn <moonshadow@persephone.org>]

At 09:43 AM 2/10/01 -0800, Stan Wilson wrote:
>Hey Y'all, First off, what the hell do rent strikes
>have to do with buying property?  For MANY people
>buying is not an option, that is why we rent.  Buying
>is the option of the the upper classes

Stan ... I've been ruminating about your post for several days now and I 
think I've finally hit upon what it is that bothers me.  You talk about how 
buying is "the option of the upper classes," but I think that is a mistaken 
view.  There are many folks who are of working class backgrounds who have 
managed to purchase their own homes, tho' I will admit it is becoming more 
and more difficult.  These people are some of the same -- many perhaps? -- 
people who were among the 1,000's of protestors at the Seattle WTO 
mobilization.  They were the rank and file members of unions and others who 
risked much to be there those days.

>residents.  Squatting is an option but in Denver I've
>found nobody willing to do all the work to support
>squating.  that is because so many "activist" here are
>so full full of their typical middle class Amerikan
>values that they fear all they have to lose not
>realizing that for every risk they take poor people
>take a thousand more just by trying to get by.

I think you're being unfair to these people you are knocking here.  There 
are many many reasons why they may not want to support squatting, not the 
least of which is they may well have families that depend on them and 
require their support.

>reason for a rent strike in denver is not so housing
>is more affotdable for the college degreed spoil off
>spring of Amerika's "baby Boomers" but because rents
>are TOO high and poor people can't afford to live in
>Denver.

It isn't just the spoiled, college degreed, offspring who are the blame for 
this situation.  We are *all* the blame.  Each of us in our own way is 
participating in this unfair economy and corrupt system.  Short of 
completely withdrawing from society and culture there is no way we can do 
otherwise.  Yet withdrawing defeats our purpose as much as the most 
devastating attacks upon us by the system.  Unless and until we learn to 
build bridges to those who can be, and may well be, our allies ... AND ... 
unless and until we are able to listen to those with radically different 
viewpoints out of a place of respect, no matter how much we may disagree 
with them, we will find ourselves at one road block after another.

>   Offering up buying to the poor is cruel,
>blind & stupid, of course I realize VERY FEW poor
>people ever see these arguements but the hypocracy,
>and that is what it is, of the discussion is why very
>few poor people ever see this list.  Get it together,
>if you want creative alternatives stop worrying about
>your bullshit bank account, mortage & SUV's and
>actually all that radical shit people talk.

Some among us, probably most of us, have to worry about those "bullshit 
bank accounts" because we have to survive in whatever way we can in this 
less than ideal system.  The real mark of a committed activist in our 
struggle against globalization, corporatization, racism, misogyny, 
homophobia, and in our efforts to save the environment, is how effective 
they are -- whatever way they are able to act.  Gandhi is quoted as saying, 
"what you do may seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

Each of us contributes in our own way and in the long run it all adds 
up.  We all have our little parts and roles to play, so let's not shut 
potential allies out because they don't march to the exact same drumbeat as 
we do.

Namaste......... Moonshadow
--
"Just as you have the instinctive natural desire to be happy and overcome 
suffering,
so do all sentient beings; just as you have the right to fulfill this innate
aspiration, so do all sentient beings. So on what exact grounds do you 
discriminate?"
	-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from "The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom"
_________________________________________________________________________
     <moonshadow@persephone.org>    ***    <http://www.persephone.org> 


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