My buddy Jon Carroll

[Yikes! Two posts in one day!]

Have to plug Jon Carroll. Began reading his column in the SFChronicle back when we lived there, and now I only check him out occasionally but he has two fine columns from this week.

First one is on the general subject of taxpayer outrage. Sample:

The American auto companies were run into the ground by idiots. (My 9-year-old car is a Honda made in Japan. It runs well; not a coincidence.) They wanted to make gigantic gas-guzzling dumbo-machines to appeal to the lost sense of virility in the American man - a lost sense of virility that may indeed have sprung from paying pointless 17 percent interest on his credit card debt - and they didn't care about gas mileage or global warming or even profits. Aren't corporations supposed to care about profits? Have I misunderstood the system?

His most recent column is actually on a subject I've been pondering for a blog post about poverty/homelessness (coming out of the Boxed In thing), it just fits right in. He suggests that instead of tackling the entire problem, each neighborhood could sign up to be responsible for one homeless person. Sample:

Of course, Carl may have issues. I assume some of the people camped outside the palaces in Rajasthan had issues too. But, you know, my brother-in-law has issues. (I don't actually have a brother-in-law; this is a hypothetical.) Human beings have issues. It's a matter of whom you choose to feel responsible for.

It's a good way to think about the fact that the problem is not insurmountable. I think it would be very interesting to visualize what would be different it it were tackled, and Jon's suggestion is just one brainstorm on the whiteboard. Apparently there was a commission formed by the MN legislature to go out on a statewide "listening tour" regarding the idea of ending homelessness. I think it would be fascinating to know what they heard. They have recently released their findings, I haven't spent any time perusing them yet, but there's a web page.