Benefit for unhoused people's projects

Joe Uveges performed a sometimes tender, sometimes hilarious set--ballads, folkish songs, poetry and music--to benefit Father James Galluzo’s charity. It provides homes for houseless people, art programs, and spiritual counsel. It was a sweet pleasure and a break from the tension of the last few days.

As I write this, about fifty of the local activists who were attacked by police on September 12 (including Micah, who is bruised but still able to participate) have set up a camp of 26 tents on the sidewalk in front of the mayor’s house. They are live-streaming their protest, demanding that the mayor resign. A typhoon has swept in from the Pacific and there is heavy rain and wind. The tents are wet and the gutters are full of water and fallen leaves and branches, but the activists are keeping their spirits high. Truckloads of riot police have been spotted two blocks away, apparently waiting for a command to move in on the protesters. Maybe the authorities are hoping the bad weather will cause the protesters to give up. I think that’s about as unlikely as it is that the mayor will resign (his term ends in December anyway). 

People are delivering doughnuts, soup, and casseroles pizza to the protesters, and the leaders say they plan to camp out in the mayor’s front yard until he resigns. I admire these gutsy, imaginative, intensely committed young people as they express their anger. I pray they will be safe.

I am sitting with my laptop on, waiting to see what’s next.