I have to say it

[waterspyder]

I seek support, not permission.

If I wanted to electively amputate parts of my body, I would fight for the right and privilege to do so. I would ask people I knew to support me in my decision. I would ask other people who wanted the same right to support me. If someone disapproved, they are not that important to me. I don’t need their permission, or the permission of the people supporting me in my fight. If I want to electively amputate my baby toe, then that’s not your decision, I don’t need your permission. If I want to amputate my uterus, also my decision, I don’t need permission.

This is why I get so uptight when people hold rallies and say that particular groups cannot attend. These people can be the non-disabled/non-colour/non-woman/non-three-toed-intersex-sloths-below-the-age-of-three; usually what it means is “not someone I identify with directly”. Men cannot support Take Back the Night because they aren’t women.
Men and transwoman cannot support Pro-choice rallies because they aren’t women with uteruses.
White people can’t support people of colour in their endeavours.
Why not? Because activists say that these groups do not need the permission of these other groups to protest.

But by saying you do not need permission from these groups, doesn’t that mean you need permission from someone.

I don’t need permission.

I don’t need permission to have chosen not to bleed. I don’t need permission to have an abortion. I don’t need permission to go pee. I don’t need permission.

Support is always welcome if you respect my decision, you know, the one I made without your permission.

Comments

[evilbitchqueen.livejournal.com]

Hey, I resent that, I was homeless once for a while an now I'm back and living on my own two feet, and persuing a university diploma to become a vet

now how would I have done that if I was rounded up and burned...

[mellian.livejournal.com]

Well, there is two kind of homeless people...those who are only on the streets temporally and do succeed in getting out of the whole. I know many youths through the YSB Youth Drop-in that were in the streets, yet some did get themselves off the streets by able to save up enough money from panhandling to pay the previous, first and possibly second month rent on an apartment, which in turn allowed them to apply for a SIN card and so on or get on welfare temporally....until something that allows them to get out of the homeless situation.

Then there the homeless that never seem to get off the streets, and I have seen some of those. There is a few homeless people downtown that I have seen homeless or at least on the streets all the time panhandling and so on for years, few since i started actively going downtown ottawa and getting to know the area. It is either by choice to some degree, lack of confidence, they got so use to it that it what they know, mental problems, drug addictions, some other medical problems..... There is few of them I really don't like, who act like society owes them like they deserve to be placed in a fancy house with everything paid for them...so basicly the lazy and hypocrites....even thought they are healthy enough, from what I can tell, to be productive. Of course, one seem to always in trouble with the police from what I have seen, so criminal records may not help them employment wise.

So yes...the former tends to be youth and young adults, and the latter usually mid adults and older, which is because youth have more chances, more opportunities than older folks, so in turn I have more faith in the younger homeless people than the older. If i ever had enough money to give out to homeless, I be bias and only give money to homeless youths.

-mellian

[firedolljamie.livejournal.com]

As Mellian's follow-up to this post mentions, there are two types of homeless. I have no issues with those who recognize that they are in a bad situation - such as yourself were - and that society is bound to provide you a certain amount of assistance to work to improve your situation. And it sounds that you have taken that opportunity and are making a worthwhile investment back to society and yourself as a result.

It's the 'lifers' who become more dangerous to themselves and others with every passing day that are the focus of my firey proposal. The guy who broke into my house had a wrap sheet that started before I was born in 1978. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that given over 25 years of opportunity you can't get ANY kind of a job or leg up on life.

Like I said, I don't expect a lot of people to agree with my dispassion for the homeless, but to WaterSpyder's original post you can either agree with the cause, argue against it but at a minimum respect my right to hold that belief and get out of the way when I bring the torch ;P

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

Growing up just outside Toronto, my mom taugh me a few things.

If you're going to give them anything, give them nutritious food.
It is not condescending to give them dog food (for their dogs). There is no reason why a pet should suffer for the stupidity of its human.

I think I have given money once to a homeless person. I believed him to be category A. He swore on his gramma's grave it was for laundry. He told me exactly what coins the washer and dryer took, and then when i gave him the necessary coinage for one load of wash, he attempted to give me the change he had collected earlier in the day. I'm pretty sure he's not still homeless.

As zenten pointed out last night "It's really easy to get off the street and onto welfare or disability, as long as you haven't committed fraud."

I had to correct him. They repealed the fraud clause in 2004.