A History of Reading by Steven Roger Fischer, 2019 revised edition

In an A.O. Scott essay about reading, published in the N.Y. Times Book Review section on June 21^st, 2023, Mr. Scott mentioned Mr. Fischer’s book: A History of Reading. I ordered the book from Sno-Isle Interlibrary Loan service. Mr. Fischer is a New Zealand linguist and former Director of the Institute of Polynesian Languages and Literatures in Auckland, New Zealand.

In his Introduction the author says: “What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Reading challenges, empowers, bewitches, enriches.” In seven well-documented chapters, Mr. Fischer starts with Egypt and runs us up to present time. He tells us that writing prioritizes sound, and reading prioritizes meaning. And a key point to remember – for most of written history, reading was reciting. If scribes bore false witness, they were killed.

Reading represents freedom to me; the freedom to absorb anything and the freedom to think about whatever has been read. No one should be dictating what you can read, right? But some have raised the issue about what is appropriate reading material for those under a certain age. As a parent, I understand their concern. Some parents want the libraries to withhold or move material they feel is inappropriate for children. But I don’t like their approach. It’s confrontational and draws a line in the sand. And they get to decide for us.

Many of us expect parents to make suggestions and guide their children when it comes to choosing material. Some parents take no responsibility for kids’ choices. Schools may provide suggestions for age-appropriate reading lists. But when you expect school boards to arbitrarily censor books, you are putting the responsibility for choosing or discarding material in the hands of citizen-driven pressure groups. Where is the freedom in that?

  In Mr. Scott’s essay he says that: “Reading liberates and torments us, enlightens and       bewilders us, makes and unmakes our social and solitary selves.”

Most of us are nodding our heads in agreement. That book that looked so promising on the shelf, ended up sparking feelings of disgust, anger, or maybe horror. Some books chime within us and spark feelings that we can scarcely understand. Scott makes the case that: “Reading, like democracy or sexual desire, is an unmanageable, inherently destabilizing force in human life.” Reading holds risk as well as promise. Reading gives us a connection with another person and their imagination and opinions. The only price we pay is our time. And yes, a risk is involved, but taking a risk implies the freedom to do so. That is the crucial element: free to choose for ourselves.

Mr. Fischer makes the same argument. “A reader can choose to understand, react to, and interpret the author’s work however the reader wants….No text, not even the most fundamental religious, dictates to a reader. It is the reader who chooses how to react, what to think. The wonder in reading is that the writer is never in control. It is the reader who plays God.”

We choose to believe, cast aside, denounce or embrace the material we read. There’s freedom of speech, freedom of the press and there’s freedom of the mind. 

(Steven Roger Fischer also wrote: A History of Writing in 2021. Also available via the Sno-Isle Library system using the Inter-Library Loan portal.)

 

Poverty, By America, by Matthew Desmond, Random House, 2023.

Mr. Desmond, a professor of sociology at Princeton University, won a Pulitzer Prize for his earlier 2016 book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. It tells the stories of eight families who, in some cases, had to spend 70% of their income for rent. And because women are paid less than men and are often raising children, they pay a greater emotional price.

Mr. Desmond grew up pretty poor, in a small railroad town in Arizona, and after his family’s home was lost to foreclosure, Poverty stressed and diminished them. He wondered: is this how families dealt with hard times? Why should there be so much hardship and desperation in this land of money?

Of his time later living in Milwaukee, Mr. Desmond says, “I saw a level of poverty that was incredibly cruel, and painful, and it drilled home in me that this is a morally urgent issue; this isn’t just about people having enough money – this is about pain, on top of eviction, on top of hunger, on top of incarceration, on top of, just, death, really…”  (C-Span “After Words” March 29^th, 2023).

Why is there so much poverty in this incredibly wealthy nation? This question drove him to write his book. And he also said: “This book is about how some lives are made small, so that others may grow…There is an incredible amount of unnecessary scarcity in this land of abundance…(and) this book is about why and how we can finally abolish it. This is a call to rebalance our safety net. I want a country that does a lot more to fight poverty than it does to guard fortunes.”

Mr. Desmond cites a study that says: “…if the top 1% just paid the taxes they owed, not pay more taxes, just stop evading taxes, we as a nation could raise an additional 175 billion. That’s more than enough money to re-establish the child tax credit; that’s enough to double our investment in affordable housing and still have money left over.” (Poverty, By America  by Matthew Desmond. April 18^th, 2023 interview on “Democracy Now.”)

How do we subsidize the wealthy? One way is the $1.8 trillion per year supplied by tax breaks – which is about double what we spend on the military. Wealthier people get more of these tax breaks from the government, than poor people get. “We could afford [to abolish poverty in America] if the richest among us took less from the government, if we designed a welfare state to do less to subsidize affluence and more to eradicate poverty.”

Another area in which the poor are disadvantaged is in housing. Private equity swooped in after the financial crisis of 2008 and bought up enormous amounts of housing, reducing the overall inventory. Mr. Desmond believes that expanding  opportunities for first time homeowners and working families could ease some of this situation. But banks prefer to lend money for expensive real estate rather than lower cost mortgages. There’s a much larger financial return from financing big ticket homes and commercial projects.

Aid Left on the Table

There are a lot of different kinds of financial aid for the poor, but it is often hard and confusing to get the money. He says they are entitled to it, but in many cases are not told how to apply for it. Mr. Desmond endorses increasing the understanding needed to apply for aid, and cutting the red tape.

“We do a very poor job in connecting families with programs that they need and deserve…Most Americans want a higher minimum wage, most Americans think the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes, most Americans, Democrat and Republican, believe now that poverty isn’t caused by a moral failing – that it’s caused by unfair circumstances.”

Concerns about Basic Needs

His 2023 book, tackles poverty in two sections: “Facts About Poverty in Your State” and “Join the Fight.” Links are provided to learn more about the issues related to poverty in the first section, and lists of organizations, both on a national and state level, that advocate for change are featured in the second. Mr. Desmond is passionate about what he has learned and argues that we may be ignorant of how poverty is allowed to exist in America, but that we can change our awareness and do something concrete.    https://endpovertyusa.org/

In his epilogue, Mr. Desmond says that poverty will be abolished in America only when a mass movement stirs. He believes that all of us “…can learn from, support, and join movements led by those who have intimate knowledge of poverty’s many slights and humiliations... mass movements are composed of scores of people finding their own way to pitch in.”

What I hear from Island County residents is this: I have just enough for myself and my family. Movements for change creep along at glacial speed and the folks who might create some change, aren’t compelled to do what we ask for. There’s some societal pressure for change, but there’s no leverage to change. I’m just one person, in a county of 87,000 people.

Mr. Desmond makes the point that: “Profiting from someone else’s pain diminishes all of us.” And at the end of the C-Span interview he says: “I think the book (Poverty, By America) makes the case that an America without poverty makes for a freer America, a safer America, a happier America, and it’s an America that’s committed to each other’s flourishing.”

Those who live too close to disaster’s edge usually don’t have much hope. Their constant focus is a four-sided box of not enough work, shelter, food, and a running car. Add the stress of providing for children, and you have people who feel trapped and desperate. Social change holds out the hope that we are moving closer to having enough –- enough safety and security and enough satisfaction through a shared community of relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Next books I will be reviewing: Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in A Divided Nation by John Freeman, and Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis by Beth Macy. Will also be covering: A History of Reading.               

Mike Diamanti

Some Suggested Reading for “Concerns”

I received hardly any suggestions for issues to tackle in this blog, so I decided to run out a list of books that hit the topics I hear in conversations during my daily rounds. All books listed are available through the Sno-Isle system.

Homeless

Best recent book for this volatile issue is: Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns, 2022. The authors, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern, combine their talents to shed light on the housing market conditions, which they consider an overlooked consideration when tackling homelessness issues. Their position is that mental health and drugs often get the spotlight, while housing availability can be overlooked. Both work in the Seattle area.

They believe that public perception, funding, and placing the problem within a broader societal context are the most important concerns that will help. They say: “…approaches that work have not been sufficiently scaled to the magnitude of the crisis.” And they mention that, on the West Coast, there is strong pressure to demonstrate progress because residents are getting increasingly frustrated.

They cite the example of the concerted effort to reduce homelessness among veterans. Since 2009, the number of homeless veterans has dropped by 50 per cent. Civilians receive far less attention and support during policymaking periods. And at a federal level there has been more money to address the veteran homeless issues.

They finish their book by stating: “Access to housing – independent of one’s ability to pay – is the bedrock of these policy successes. From the veteran’s example, we know that investments in housing, rental subsidies, and systems thinking can substantially reduce the population of people experiencing homelessness…People design cities and structure markets. They can also choose to change them.”

Island County has a robust Housing Assistance menu of services as well as the Veterans Assistance help. Here are the links:

https://www.islandcountywa.gov/383/Housing-Assistance

https://www.islandcountywa.gov/200/Veterans-Assistance

 

An Open Question          May 3^rd, 2023

One of the noun definitions for concern is: a matter that engages a person’s attention, interest or care, or that affects a person’s welfare or happiness.

What are your concerns? What can you do about them?

A month ago I picked up a book: How To Read Non-fiction Like a Writer, by Thomas C. Foster, 2020. I read lots of non-fiction: history, memoir, eyewitness accounts, essays and satire. And because I feel the constant urge to write, I figured this would be a good read. It was and it is.

Mr. Foster sums up the problem by telling us that what we need when we read non-fiction is to think better. And we can think better by asking good questions.  Then he encourages us to act like an editor. It’s up to us to filter out baloney, misdirection and straight up lies. He further refines it: …interrogate the text, asking that series of questions about appropriateness and accuracy and logic that must be asked. (p. 249)

I simply ask: Does this make sense (to you, to me)? What type of writing am I reading? What is the source of the statement or claim? Is there a bias in play, the author’s or my own? What are the credentials of the writer? Why did she or he write the piece? Who do I think the piece was written for?  

Having spent almost a month casting about for the next person or organization to interview or highlight, I can’t choose the next subject. Whidbey Island has a large number of organizations, public and private that address not only problems, but needs. The everyday problems I read about and that society grapples with often seem too complex, too interwoven and unsolvable in the sense that no one agrees on even minimal steps to address the solutions. Compromise used to work as a method to reach a solution. Now it’s a dirty word.

A couple I know are seriously considering the best place to live outside of the United States. They want to live where children are not gunned down in their schools. Others recite the latest horrors they have seen on the news, ending with a shake of the head, hands thrown in the air. And yet we go on.

The things I hear Island County residents complain about include: crime, drugs, the police, the homeless, hunger, no affordable housing, politics, fringe groups, too many visitors and the ferry system.

Very few express any kind of satisfaction with the condition of the world. But they also say that we are so lucky to live on Whidbey Island. They cite the natural beauty, small town atmosphere, it’s a good place to raise kids, and friendliness. Everywhere else is awful, but Island County shines.

Author David Brooks believes that Americans are faced with a clear choice going forward. He says: …we’re in the middle of a moral struggle over who we are as a nation.  What are the two choices? Brooks says that one view is that we live in a dog-eat-dog world…that might makes right. The opposite of this is a belief in human dignity and that each of us matters. Cooperation rather than isolation.

Yes, we live in a polarized country. Changing someone’s mind is usually not possible. The point is to work together on what we agree is important and worthy of our energy. What is important to you, what matters to you, as a resident of Island County?

Mike Diamanti  

Please send me your suggestions for additional “Island County Concerns” topics and subject matter via email:

islandcountyconcerns@gmail.com

 

 

(Spin Café, photo by M. Diamanti).

The SPIN Café (Serving People in Need) cares for the most exposed in our community. Their mission is: “To meet the basic needs of food, shelter and offer a sense of self-worth to the vulnerable people in our community.” SPIN occupies a large, open room at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Oak Harbor, and is open Monday-Friday from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm. I met with SPIN’s Executive Director, Michele Hines on March 23^rd, 2023.

Mike: I’m wondering how you ended up involved with SPIN and its mission.

Michele: I spent a lot of my adult life involved with a real estate company. I took time off to raise my kids, homeschooled them. I look for ways to get things done and how to make things work. I’ve done property management, I’ve done bookkeeping. My strong suit is organizational and financial skills. I also was the administrator and bookkeeper here at St. Stephen’s.

After Vivian Rogers-Decker left in 2019, SPIN’s board of directors asked me to become Treasurer. I came in purely to help SPIN get their finances in order so that they could move forward. At the same time, St. Stephen’s is big on outreach, and that’s where my religious background comes in; I love to help people, I love to give to people. These are natural things for me. I told the Rector here the other day, that SPIN is just like having Sunday coffee hour (held after Sunday service) all week long. It is simply about being kind to people.

All during COVID, while we had a sandwich program going on down at the beach with our partner churches, I was looking for a job, and I couldn’t find one that suited me. I was asked if I wanted to be Executive Director for SPIN. What really sparked my interest was to grow the business of SPIN by saying, OK, let’s start new and grow this business. I was asked around November of 2020. We re-opened here, in February of 2021. It was natural for me because I know this building really well.

What I’ve learned in the last two years is that we’ve moved into a label of sorts: homeless service provider. That’s where the state and federal money is. I don’t know that SPIN is an entity that the community can support a 100%, even with community grants. My budget is feeling a pinch right now because of the cost of living. There are lots and lots of HUD grants out there for housing. It’s hard enough to get an apartment building built, let alone get it funded by HUD.

Mike: SPIN was awarded a three year, $635,000 HUD grant in February. What is the atmosphere as you look for a place to rent or lease, with the new HUD grant?

Michele: Maybe two years ago, the WA legislature passed House Bill 1220 which mandated that cities provide for homeless services. That’s always at the front of my mind when I’m talking to Oak Harbor City people. I will push back if anyone says SPIN can’t be here.

Mike: You mentioned that it has been difficult finding another location. It seems that you have so much community support across the board, from individuals, organizations, non-profits, and business. Are there people advocating on your behalf to find a place?

Michele: Yes, there are. Perhaps the locations prohibit where we go. We’re looking at all options. We want to be good neighbors. We don’t want our homeless guests interfering with businesses. It’s getting narrowed down to stand alone buildings. I’m looking at the county health ordinances, and what the City of Oak Harbor needs, before we make an official move on a place. Everybody is moving cautiously. And you are absolutely right; we have a lot of community support.

Mike: Island County offers a lot of help.

Michele: Island County Human Services are huge supporters. We work with them, they manage the HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) data base, they do the Homeless Point in Time Count, they have social workers, we really work well with them.

As far as SPIN Café goes, we want to avoid the tent cities and the rampant drug use we see in King, Snohomish, and Whatcom Counties. We want to manage our homeless population and manage our issues to resolve them. We’re not going to resolve it a 100%, but if we work together to manage it, we can make it better because we’re all working together.

Mike: So much of your work and Island County’s efforts are about relationships. The general public often does not know about those ongoing relationships, and how effective they are.

Michele: If we have a problem with a guest that is a known drug user, we can call any  number of organizations. We can call the Recovery Navigator program, we can call the police department, we can call the sheriff’s department, to mitigate the situation and prevent them from causing trouble somewhere else. We collaborate with each other all the time. I can call David Thorson anytime; he worked here in 2022, but now he’s with the Recovery Navigator Program.

(https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Humanservices/Pages/Recovery-Navigator.aspx#:~:text=Recovery%20Navigator%20staff%20facilitate%20and,treatment%20and%20recovery%20support%20services.&text=Coordination%20and%20communication%20between%20law,medical%20providers%20and%20community%20partners.)

Mike: What you witness each day can affect you. How do you handle the stress?

Michele: I think about that every day when I get ready in the morning. How the privilege of preparing for your day, privately, in your space, is not available to most of our guests.

Mike: Your guests can do laundry at Dutch Maid Laundry and Dry Cleaning on Thursday mornings?

Michele: Yes, right.

Mike: And they can use the Oak Harbor pool?

Michele: If they are new to us, we send them to the pool with our Shelter Manager to make sure they will follow the rules and be a reliable user. Once we know they can be trusted, they can go to the pool twice a week, but most go once a week.  Island County pays for this service.

Mike: You mentioned that there were about eight individuals you consider low income, or “working poor”. They often have jobs but can’t afford housing. Some live in their cars. Has that number gone up or down?

Michele: Now it’s down to about two people. And that number does go up and down. Island County has a housing specialist present here at SPIN twice a week. Every year, in May or June, we apply to Island County for money, and part of the money I apply for is to fund the pool showers. The pool was a little reluctant to do it, but so far we haven’t had any problems. We buy punch cards and pay the full rate. We’re supporting our community and we are also taking care of our guests. When you talk about what makes people feel the best, being clean, being fed, and having clean clothes are very important. Sometimes when I talk about needs, I talk about the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. We’re down here at the bottom, trying to boost up these basic needs.

Mike: It seems that affordable housing in Island County is shrinking at an alarming rate.

Michele: There is a very limited amount of low income housing.

According to author Matthew Desmond, “…the majority of poor renting families in America spend over half their income on housing…Fewer and fewer families can afford a roof over their head. This is among the most urgent and pressing issues facing America today…For decades, we’ve focused mainly on jobs, public assistance, parenting and mass incarceration….We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.”  (Evicted  by Matthew Desmond, 2016.)

Mike: Tell me about your concerns for your guests surrounding the housing issues.

Michele: Any housing or health changes, a car emergency, can change everything. Let’s say you are going to lose where you live. One of our people who now has housing, there were three of them in an apartment, and one person said I can’t be here anymore, I can’t afford this; the other two couldn’t afford the apartment, so now they are spending time at SPIN. They both are working, they both get food stamps, but they are just holding on by a shoestring.

Mike: How does Island County classify the SPIN Café?

Michele: In my zoning quest I’m looking at how we define SPIN. Are we a restaurant? Are we a community center? What exactly are we? Just last Saturday I was looking at the zoning map. What is C3? What is C4? Understanding zoning is difficult.

Mike: What is your staffing like, and do you have help?

Michele: I do have help. The board of directors helps me. Last year I promoted Fe to Shelter Manager, so that I don’t have to be here all the time. She handles a lot of the day to day. I feel a bit disconnected because I like working with our guests, but I know that for the health of the SPIN Café, I need to focus more on the grant writing and the administrative work. We hire Robin Hertlein to write some small, community grants for us. I wrote the larger grants.

Mike: Was it daunting?

Michele: Very. I spent hours and hours on it. Once I submitted it to Washington State, there were two people there who helped revise it and asked questions. HUD’s got all this liberal language that you’re forced to use and make part of your policy if you want their money. That’s the way it is with any grant. These are the requirements; if you want it, this is what you have to do.

Mike: So you had to understand how to apply for the grant, even before working on it.

Michele: I really studied all of it because we fit some grants and we don’t fit others. It is a really good exercise for me as an Executive Director to jump through those hoops because they want specific numbers. We keep good metrics; we know how many guests we have each day, we know how many lunches we serve, how many showers, how many dinners, and so forth. Since October we started keeping track of individuals in the main room, we keep internal notes. We’ve served over a 140 different people in the last six months. And then break it down as to what we did for each of these individuals, be it treatment, housing, and referrals with Island County. This is what we do with our resources. Our resources are not just to feed and have a day center for people. Our resources are to help homeless people move forward with their lives and move in a direction that is out of homelessness.

Solutions to the housing issues will vary by location. What might work in a densely populated city may not be a solution in a semi-rural area like Island County. In his Epilogue, Matthew Desmond says: “What we need most is a housing program for the unlucky majority…A universal housing voucher program would carve a middle path between the landlord’s desire to make a living and the tenant’s desire, simply, to live…If poverty persists in America, it is not for lack of resources.”

Numbers to consider: SPIN served 6,245 lunches in 2020, 7,753 in 2021, and 7,901 in 2022. Number of guests visiting SPIN in 2021: 4,614 and in 2022: 7,289.

Guest Focused

Mike: People often say, well, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Michele: Several of our guests are battling alcoholism. Many people have let their addiction go so far, they’ve lost everything. We support their sobriety, and several of them are willing to talk about it. One of the things that SPIN can do in a small community, is we can care for our folks. Only a small community like Whidbey Island can do this.

Mike: Marc Stroud, SPIN’s Board President, said that SPIN also helps people feel a sense of self-worth and belonging. Do you help with other needs people have, besides the basics we’ve talked about?

Michele: We call everybody by name. COVID was disastrous for homeless people and providers. You take an already isolated population that is stigmatized, and then isolate them more. During much of COVID, there were no water fountains, there were no public restrooms, no showers, no community services unless a county worker met you in the street. Your governor told you to go home. Homeless people had no home. You were unwelcome everywhere. Mentally ill people really felt it the most. The extended isolation helped drive people into the woods and encampments.

We want the general public to know that our meal service on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday is for anyone who needs a meal, not just our homeless population.  This is a home cooked meal served from 4 pm to 5 pm on those days. And we can also provide help and resources for those who need to sign up or change health insurance and other documents. We serve as a resource center.

Mike: Who are some of the groups that you’ve given presentations to?

Michele: Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, several churches. I love to give presentations. During the course of my day recently, a woman I know said: “We really don’t want SPIN here, downtown, but I’m really glad that you are running SPIN because you are providing a really good service.” It has taken two years for someone to go from saying we don’t want these people, to saying I’m really glad you’re working and helping them. It would be great if more people really understood how we are all working together, battling the drug problem, helping people get out of being homeless, and providing these services.

The Point in Time CountThe annual tally of people living homeless in America is conducted during the last 10 days of January. Most agree that it is a significant undercount, but gives a snapshot of how many are living rough. During the past decade the numbers have ranged from 550,000 to 650,000.

Point in Time Count data: Volunteers went out on February 24^th, 2022 in Island County and counted people who said they were living homeless. The North Whidbey count was 38. Covid interrupted the count in 2021 but between 2016 and 2020, the number fluctuated between a high of 69 in 2017 and a low of 41 in 2018.

Mike: Island County’s population is increasing. Does that raise some concerns for you about the growing number of people who need help?

Michele: Yes. When I wrote the HUD grant, I estimated that services would be needed, at some point in the future, for a 100 people per day. The cost of living is skyrocketing, wages are not increasing; that is a vicious circle. People are losing their housing, they are not being able to feed themselves, and drugs are so prevalent. Society is increasingly more complex. When you are 18 years old, there is no place you can go where you can get a job right out of high school, and a place to live, and a car, all by yourself. I think that people are just giving up on life. And I think that as a community, if we can band together to support the people that are less fortunate, we can make it meaningful.

Mike: It seems that many people have an inclination to help others, in some way.

Michele: At SPIN you can help in a multitude of ways. You can give leftover clothing, you can give money, you can give your time, you can serve coffee, and you can come to SPIN and just hang out. Volunteers are an important piece of our support. SPIN Café website: https://www.spincafeoh.org/

My thanks to Michele Hines for meeting with me to discuss SPIN Café, its mission, its community connections and the outreach that the staff, volunteers and supporters are providing to Island County residents. (Michele Hines – photo M. Diamanti).