When There’s Nowhere Else to Turn . . . Go to the Library
I was very affected by an op-ed piece I read today on homelessness and public libraries. The article hit me especially hard because it was written by Chip Ward, the former assistant director of the Salt Lake City Library, and several of the homeless and mentally ill individuals he mentions in his vignettes are people I know and help and struggle with daily.
Chip’s article is an indictment of the entire system that creates and perpetuates homelessness, and he doesn’t free anyone from the blame. But ultimately, he leaves us with a grain of hope. The system is broken, but it can be fixed; those whom current policies have abandoned and society has despised can receive help instead of being condemned for something that may ultimately be beyond their control.
You can read the article can in full on TomDispatch.com and in abridged form on the L.A. Times website.
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