Support the smart solution for homelessness
My feelings about street-level homelessness in beachside Daytona Beach have changed during my five years of residence. I moved from a more rural area of Florida, unfamiliar with the homeless issue. Initially, I was overcome with natural pity, and — searching for a way to show compassion — would give a donation to a panhandler, or a smile for some poor soul pillaging a trash can.
The fruitlessness of such action soon revealed itself, as I repeatedly witnessed people selling food just received from the corner church, and stealing aluminum from recycle bins. Irritation set in, conflicting with my compassion. I grew angry that the police can’t make them all go away, and annoyed that the churches drag them into my neighborhood to feed them (where there is no shelter), enabling them to stay on the street and avoid help for their addiction.
When we finally get “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” we will change the culture of Daytona Beach. Fortunately, help is on the way in a visionary project called Volusia Safe Harbor.
No, it will not solve every issue, and it won’t help every homeless individual, but it’s a step in the right direction — a compassionate and coordinated approach to the root causes of homelessness in adults: addiction and mental health. I can express my compassionate side by supporting a way to get real help for these forgotten people, with my voice and financial contributions.
Let’s urge the county and our cities to support Volusia Safe Harbor, while encouraging our churches and faith-based groups to use their spectacular ability to feed and care for people to move these wandering souls toward the help they so desperately need.
Amy Pyle
Daytona Beach
Pyle is active on beachside revitalization efforts, and a declared candidate for the Daytona Beach City Commission District 3.
See things clearly
Last month a financial planner claiming 32 years of experience stated in his letter, "Our past president had no problem shipping billions to Iran. I’d prefer to see that money stay here in the U.S.” The wording implied that it was a gift to Iran. However, it was a settlement of a decades-old legal claim between our two countries, finally released to pressure freeing of four Americans.
The writer’s statement was a typical misuse of information. Only research can generate information necessary for voting and adopting of a political position. The slanted views of Fox News, for example, are not research, they’re opinions. Research should not be confused with the analytical smokescreen offered in a recent contributor’s statement, “One cannot achieve critical thinking without mastering fundamental analytical skills.” It’s rather like saying a day at the beach cannot be enjoyed without a background in oceanology and marine biology to appreciate what one is seeing. Most perception about life’s basics is sensory stimulus added to experience and prior information. Analytical thinking may be indicated for complex grey areas, but is overkill for the black and white of everyday right and wrong, and is not a requirement to decide if the administration is “authoritarian.”
Barbara Morgan
Daytona Beach
Wall protests
There are miles after miles of walls along our interstate highways. We have walls around prisons to keep prisoners in. People have walls around their properties to keep intruders out. I haven’t heard many complaints about those walls.
Why would a border wall, to keep intruders and drug trafficking out, be any more offensive to the Democrats than those walls? Is it all a political ploy from the “don’t let anything get done that President Trump wants” Democrats?
Joy Gloer
Ormond Beach