‘Miscellany’ Archives
Who Are Our “Leaders”?
PEACE HOUSING COMMUNITY: A PLACE TO BELONG By MARTI MALTBY For whatever reason, I”™ve been wondering lately who”™s in charge, or, to put it another way, who is the leader. If a space alien gave me the cliché, “Take me to your leader”, I”™m not sure who I would take him to. Many years ago, one of my college instructors defined a leader as someone who had followers. More recently, I came across the book Bad Leadership, which argued that many “leaders” were bad at their jobs because they were ineffective, meaning they couldn”™t get others to buy into their vision or the direction they wanted to take their organization. In other words, no one was following them. (The book also argued that some leaders were bad because they did have followers, but they led the followers to make really bad decisions. Think Jonestown.) I am becoming more and more aware of how many people call themselves “leaders” [...]
We Are Not Trash, Stop Sweeping Us!
By SOUTHSIDE HARM REDUCTION SERVICES This last month the Minneapolis Police evicted another encampment of people experiencing houselessness in East Phillips. This is the third time in the past few months that this group has been moved. This eviction was especially violent. About 40 police arrived to forcibly evict roughly 30 residents with no place for residents to move. The police barricaded the area surrounding the camp and forced almost all the community outreach workers out of the camp, searching for people with active warrants and telling residents they had 5 minutes to pack everything and leave. During this eviction, a resident of the encampment experienced an overdose. The police (all of whom are supposed to be carrying naloxone) did not respond. Instead, they continued to stand around and force people to leave the encampment. Fortunately, a fellow resident responded to the emergency by administering naloxone, and the person experiencing the overdose survived, exclusively [...]
