My whole life all I ever wanted was a safe place to live. It’s only unreasonable when people overcomplicate it with reasons that ignore the real issue: everyone deserves a safe place to live. Every human. No exceptions. If housing is taken care of, a lot of things improve. Mental health, addiction, abuse — if we were guaranteed, each of us, a safe place to live, then we could work on how we want to live. Housing and food, forever, for everyone. No excuses, no questionnaires, no financial scrutiny, no waiting lists, no bullshit, no fucking around. All the money pouring into housing, mental health & health care that doesn’t address living environments, stress management, impulse buying, addiction, housing litigation, advocacy, administration and social services and screening applications, shelters, domestic abuse services, paperwork, could be redirected into improving and caring for living spaces, mutual aid, infrastructure. Aaaaand I’m pretty sure this is both how corrupt political systems based on ideas (and wars) start. And then we go round and round again. But can we just try HOUSING FOR ALL PLEASE for a change of pace? It makes it easier to shelter in place if we have actual shelter. I think housing for all, free and clear, might actually frickin’ flatten the curve. Can I emigrate/flee to New Zealand on the grounds that if I don’t get some shelter, as a developmentally disabled transgender survivor of domestic violence & hate crimes, I am in fear for my life? Probably not. SOMEONE GET ME ON A BOAT HEADED THAT WAY LET’S DO THIS. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, US? I’ve had enough of the American Nightmare. This place is a war with, what, 350 million individual sides? Did commoners ever successfully flee pre-revolutionary France? War and genocide shouldn’t be the only acceptable reason to flee a country. They’re not the only things that destroy lives, wipe out whole peoples. Like the AIDS crisis. When you’re living in an abusive situation, the only real solution is to get out. But getting somewhere safe? When the places with the most land, wealth, and resources are the most stingy and over controlled by people who on no account should be allowed to be in charge? Anti-Americanism? Maybe. I don’t hate people for being American, I hate solipsistic dicks in denial about the impact of their habituated choices. People here are addicted to capitalism. Look at how money-addicts flip when someone threatens their stash. “[Pearl clutch] GASP! Not… SOCIALISM! I might have to give back some of my preeeecious stuff? DEATH BEFORE EQUALITY!” Greed has poisoned human souls, has barricaded the world with intolerance, has gas-powered driven us into narcissism and misery. We have overdeveloped busy-ness, but we have shut ourselves down. Technology that gives connection has left us isolated. Our education has made us mindlessly obedient; rationalisations, cold and numb. We talk too much, act first and think later, and aim to see who can feel the least. More than progress, we need compassion. More than rationalising, we need consent and consideration. We need humility, we need to fuck up and learn, we need to listen, we need to ask. We need to act human. We are not computers, in need of reprogramming, combating mental malware without consideration for individual needs and sources. We do not live to assimilate, work, and suffer in silence. We need mind and time to act with awareness. We need compassion, not shame, to deal with mistakes. We need hearts that can withstand strong feelings without burying them under the floor and acting unconsciously on them. We need the nerve, the courage, the chutzpah to be unique, to be imperfectly human, fallible, inconsistent, aim to live smarter rather than harder. We are not machines. We are not zombies, drones, and were not born to create our own cages of past and future until the present is erased, on autopilot. We are human, which is dangerous, terrible, beautiful, powerful, capable of change--with courage.