The Party of Lincoln Landed Here

The city of St. Paul opened its arms and figuratively, literally, many of their barricades in the streets and most visited in order to host the Republican National Convention (RNC). Security concerns, especially concerns about the possibility that someone might place explosives near the Xcel Energy Center, along with measures taken to ensure crowd control, led to develop measures to create a maze of fences and a phalanx over a significant number of routes in the city. For the most part, we have suffered native uninjured.

Members of the Dorothy Day / Mary Hall community first row of the development of a diverse range of events. Journalists, delegates, protesters and, of course, members of all levels of law enforcement around the foot several torments of our habitat. A root of this mess, the consensus among the participants seems to be that, despite the inconvenience of roadblocks and the intense police scrutiny, things ran more easily than most people had expected. Indeed, the direst possibilities did not materialize.

Much credit goes to Rosemarie Reger-Rumsey of the House Gerry Lauer and listening to the Dorothy Day Center (DDC), along with his staff for accumulation and dissemination of useful information about what to expect during the four days of RNC. Due to their efforts, almost everyone in our community is aware of the prohibitions on vehicles, means the probability of searching, I knew what the services would not be available and prepared to cope with the influx of law enforcement and protesters . Furthermore, the DDC serves meals 3 times a day while those who used the house to stay in the center 24 hours a day. Listen to the House also added more time to their usual hours of operation.

During the days of the RNC, both Catholic Charities and Casa personal listening, your own transportation and parking problems, however, were always available to meet the needs of their customers and guests. When a protest march on the second day of the RNC, brought hundreds of people to the "Public Assembly Area directly in front of the DDC, Catholic Charities of the guard was used to ensure that none of those people who use Shelter overnight extension DDC Program hours were inadvertently trapped in a volatile situation.

By most accounts, the center of San Pablo, in general, and around the DDC, in particular, remains, except one or two notable exceptions, very quiet and calm during the four days of the RNC. Despite the fact that the leaders of our city the place chosen for the "Open Forum Stage" directly in front of the DDC, few events occurred along the Old Sixth Street. For most of the time during the convention, the area around the "Open Forum Stage" was abandoned. Interestingly, many of which use the services of the CDD or the House of listening enjoy greater ease of movement during the RNC, at least within the area immediately surrounding, what we experience in normal circumstances. Travelers who routinely clog the streets during peak hours, and most are not from the usual agitators were absent in our community. However, the streets are not always quiet.

On Tuesday, September 2, the poor people of the Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) brought their "March for Our Lives" at the door of the Xcel Center - or at least as close to the front door of the march could get without proper credentials. After an afternoon rally in Mears Park, the group of anti-poverty and their supporters headed first to the Capitol grounds, where people waiting in vain for the prohibition of listening to Rage Against The Machine perform an impromptu concert joined to them. This expanded group of demonstrators proceeded to West 7th Street and settled across the DDC in the area set aside for the "Open Forum Stage."

Cheri Honkala, the march's leader, declared his intention to deliver to people attending the RNC, the findings of a truth commission: that poverty and homelessness in the United States constitutes a violation of at least 3 items of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to prevent these violations, and elected officials attending the RNC had any responsibility for these violations.

With the atrocities of the fascist Germany still fresh in mind, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Declaration sets forth the inalienable rights of all human beings. The United States is a signatory to the Universal Declaration. The PPEHRC interpret Articles 23, 25 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so that the lack of affordable housing, livable wage employment, health care is universal and a violation of basic economic human rights.

Changes Voices applauds and supports this effort to broaden public discussion of human rights to include conditions resulting from low economic status. Questioned the extent to which the prevalence of poverty and homelessness in the United States violates the commitment of our elected officials at the beginning of economic justice which was accepted unanimously for over sixty years, brings a PPehrc valuable perspective to the debate on this issue. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by a vote of 48 to 0, with only Saudi Arabia, South Africa and six countries of the Soviet bloc the choice to abstain. In addition, Cheri Honkala and other leaders of the PPEHRC the merit of conducting a discipline, the peaceful expression of political views.

After the RNC, St. Paul, no longer in the national and international media attention will return to normal. Our streets are lost roadblocks, the buses will travel their usual routes, the DDC will return to its regular schedule, and a much smaller number of police officers appear in full riot gear. Nationally, John McCain and Sarah Palin are going to the November 4 elections as the Republican candidate for President and Vice President of the United States. As normalcy returns, the question of whether the March for Our Lives, an organized effort to characterize poverty and homelessness as violations of human rights, have any lasting influence.

Law enforcement and most of the media focused on the protesters outlets, self-described anarchists, who openly announced plans to disrupt the process through the destruction and violence. The PPEHRC conducted a non-violent but militant, try using the "March for Our Lives" for reopening the discussion about the concern for affordable housing, health, education and employment. For many PPEHRC the effort may seem only a manifestation of a splinter group of the species whose activity is often cited to justify the overwhelming police presence that accompanied the arrival of the Republicans. In general, however, the message of the PPEHRC message that corresponds to the Voices for Change aims to move forward.

With the curtain closed on the theater now that a national convention of the appointment should be, the race for the election becomes a script of 60 days per candidate. It is a time for us to be here dedicated to addressing the serious problems that moved the leaders and members of the PPEHRC to march through the streets. All candidates, democratic, republican or a third party should wait to speak to the issue of homelessness and addressing the social, political and economic connection with its continued existence.

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