Mr. Norse it’s easy pickins as usual. Your challenge to specify the lies in your current publication is almost as easy as pointing them out on the last one. It’s true that your latest flyer is slightly more veiled, but you still can’t resist lying. In your latest flyer under your Fitzmaurice muckraking section, you state that the Dolphin-Lee Project destroyed more housing than it created. I’m sorry but that is a lie. It would have been merely deceptive if you had said units rather than housing, but the fact is the Dolphin-Lee Project houses more people than previously existed. You worked very hard to scare the residents and keep them in run-down living conditions, but luckily were unsuccessful. While we’re on this section, although it is technically not a lie to claim '100s were displaced', all of them were given the opportunity to come back at the same rent as before and if they wanted, they were relocated. They also had the option, as you well know, of taking the $5,400 buy out if they wanted to. Lots of poor single men opted for the $5,400 and were quite pleased by it.

Concerning the yelling, no, I’m not whoever it is that yelled at you to ‘go home’ The yelling at people is one of my biggest objections to you HUFFists. It’s really a shame when HUFFists yell at downtown shoppers. Free speech doesn’t mean you have the right to follow people and yell in their face, no matter how righteous you think your message is. It’s not free speech it’s merely harassment and ultimately defeats your message. The same thing goes with Bernard and his vandalism. It completely discredits and ruins any truthful part of your message.

Van, I remember well the bad old days when troll-busting was rampant and had tacit approval. I remember being picked up by the police, turned over to the Sheriff and being dumped in Felton in the middle of the night for the crime of being broke and having no place to sleep. I remember the days when we really did have a conservative city government and I appreciate all of those who worked so hard using positive energy to make the huge changes we take for granted today. I’ve lived in almost every possible housing configuration in this town. I’ve lived in trucks, vans, buses, shacks, trees, garages and camped in some still secret places. I’ve paid rent to live in converted crawl spaces with dirt floors. I know what it means to be poor here, and no I’m not jealous of Mr. Norse’s riches. Unlike Mr. Norse I know from experience what it’s like to work and pay rent. I know what it feels like to wash dishes, pull weeds, bus tables, and mop floors. It’s completely relevant that Mr. Norse can afford to hire lawyers to harass the city council. He could’ve chosen to donate that money instead. You say there is nothing wrong with his glory grabbing, fine, why not a little glory spending those lawyers fees helping people get their next months rent paid. Why not dare people to match his donations to a rent fund? Whether or not you believe Fitzmaurice should have booted Norse, it is still a huge waste to have sued, it benefits no one, protects no ones rights, and merely shows what a spoiled big baby Norse is. Norse knows nothing and cares nothing about the poor, he props himself up on the backs of the poor to further his hateful crusade. Van, I enjoyed your metaphor: “Life is like an avalanche - no 1 snowflake has any real say in anything. It takes a co-incidence of forces before anything significant ever happens. “ But I don’t think that it’s inconsistent with the Power Of One. Each and every one of us can bring about dramatic changes by letting our heart rule and having the courage to speak out against outrageous injustice. I know in my heart the greatest damage and injustice to our community is not from silly camping laws or ordinances, which are easily skirted anyway, but by the hate-mongers from the entire political spectrum who attack us day in and day out. We are them and we must speak out against the lies and the hate now.

Contrary to Mr. Norse opinion about my knowledge of camping bans, which is irrelevant to his lying anyway, I’m very aware of the history of camping ban laws. And in particular, I’m acutely aware of the history of the Homeless Issues Task Force, their recommendations and more importantly the reason they failed. If they had been more concerned with consensus building, rather than making sure that the task force members themselves were paid a living wage, something might have been accomplished. The original task force group started out well, but because of the change in members of the task force, it became an arrogant group demanding everything and giving nothing. Don Lane was another person who worked very hard for the poor. Why they wouldn’t listen to him is beyond me.

Mr. Norse mentions some excellent groups with proven track records and hopes that by naming them some of their credibility will rub off on him. This is ludicrous. Why do you think that SCAN didn’t endorse Leavitt? The single biggest reason Leavitt didn’t get endorsed was because he wouldn’t reject the destructive tactics of HUFFists. What about CAB? Ask Paul Brindell what he thinks about Norse and his goon squad’s tactics. Naturally there is consensus among these groups about the sleeping ban, but there is also consensus as to Norse’s credibility: zero. It’s about time we stop letting him fill our town with hate. Norse is no better than Rush Limbaugh or any right-wing reactionary. We must resist the rabid lynch mob mentality. We should be very proud of our town and even our sometimes-bumbling city leaders. While I can’t support Rotkin or Mathews due to their refusal to entertain any change in the sleeping ban, I appreciate very much all the work Mathews has done for women’s causes and the many social programs, and living wage Rotkin has supported. Norse’s attack on their character and attempt to make them out to be unfeeling puppets of the police and merchants because they made a few faulty decisions is pathetic and completely absurd