News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday December 21st 2025
Homeless Crisis Requires Common Sense Solutions
Something I said
By DWIGHT HOBBES
There comes a point at which even bleeding heart liberalism must yield to common sense and things at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis have passed it.
There”™s been a great deal of carping about how the city owes the homeless a place to go, the parks ”“ not just Powderhorn ”“ should be their sanctuary, so on and so forth. This would hold water if the encampment in the middle of a decent, peaceful neighborhood had not sordidly and violently disrupted the surrounding quality of life. The inhabitants didn”™t even have to contribute to communal well being, just not drag it down into the gutter and literally endanger it.
As of this writing, crime there has gone from bad to worse. A teen aged girl was raped on June 26. Two days later, so was a woman. All told, there have been three sexual assaults; at least three that were reported. A man was shot in the face recently. Drug use has become so commonplace, neighborhood residents don”™t bother to call police when they see suspected activity, including the directly related traffic of hookers hopping in and out of cars at all hours of the day and night. Junkies have been carted away in ambulances after overdosing. Home… Read the rest “Homeless Crisis Requires Common Sense Solutions”
“Walkabout” (1971) ***** 5 out of 5 stars 20th Century Fox
Movie Corner
By HOWARD McQUITTER II
A riveting film by Nicholas Roeg in which a teenage girl, (Jenny Agutter), and her younger brother, Lucien John, (Luc Roeg), find themselves in unforeseen circumstances in the Australian Outback. The two youngsters and their father are supposedly on their way to a picnic. Without warning, the father (John Meillon), stops the car and starts shooting at the children who seek refuge behind a rock. Then, the father sets the car on fire before shooting himself in the head. The teenage girl, witnessing the horror, shields her brother from seeing the incident.
Out in the middle of nowhere in scorching heat, crawling with scorpions and snakes and seemingly endless sand, the two English children walk for miles. Tired and hungry, they come upon a watering hole. It is here they meet the Aboriginal Boy, (David Gulpilil), who knows the Outback backwards and forwards.
Gulpilil”™s character, just known as Black Boy, shows the two white children how to hunt and survive in the harshness of the Outback. In one scene, Gulphilil is wrestling a small buffalo to the ground before he”™s nearly run over by white men in a truck. They are shooting at buffalo with rifles, more for sport than for food.… Read the rest ““Walkabout” (1971) ***** 5 out of 5 stars 20th Century Fox”
Groundhog Day
Peace House Community””A Place to Belong
By MARTI MALTBY
Back in May, when people had settled into the Covid-19 lockdown, a survey by OnePoll asked Americans how their sense of time was being affected by spending day after day in their homes. The results included:
- The average American got confused about what day it was five times every week.
- 59% of respondents didn”™t even know what day it was when they took the survey.
- 65% of those polled said they were struggling to stay motivated during self-isolation.
When I heard the results, my mind immediately flashed back many months to a meditation discussion I led at PHC. I asked community members what parts of homelessness could never be explained but simply had to be experienced. Several people gave answers that almost exactly mirrored the survey results I just mentioned. Among other things, the community members said:
- “It”™s like [the movie] Groundhog Day. Every day is just like the day before.”
- “You have to learn how to make yourself comfortable because you know what tomorrow is going to bring, and it”™s the same as today.”
- “It takes strength not to snap into depression. You’ve got to keep a positive mind.”
- “Being homeless over a period of time messes with your mind.”
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