dborys

King 5 News in Seattle did a news piece on Pongo Poetry. My blog doesn’t have the capability to embed the video of the show, but I encourage you to click this link and listen to the 7:58 minute video.

The video talks about how the volunteers work with the kids to produce cathartic poetry about the pain they’ve gone through. You hear glimpses of them talk about what has happened to them and hear recitations of pieces they’ve written that help to excise the past so they can move on to a better future.

http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Poetry-flows-from-teens-behind-bars-141111313.html

“Pongo runs writing projects for youth who’ve suffered childhood traumas, such as abuse and neglect,” says Gold who was named a Microsoft Integral Fellow by the Microsoft Alumni Foundation in 2010 with $25,000 for Pongo.

“We work inside juvenile detention centers, homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals, and other sites. And we particularly focus our work on young people who have a hard time expressing themselves. Our primary purpose is to help our authors understand their feelings, build self-esteem, and take better control of their lives,” says Gold.

Poetry flows from teens behind bars | KING5.com Seattle.

It seems every time there is an article on helping the homeless there are haters spitting and shaking their fists in the comments. Facts mean nothing to some people. Although I will admit sometimes it is difficult to know what the real facts are. It’s a little like the Bible–everyone picking passages that support what they want to believe, ignoring the rest.

“If you check the data, you will see that your so called “righties” are the overwhelming majority of the ones that are supporting those folks that were either too lazy or incapable of getting an education or a job. Stop blaming society for all their ills. We had nothing to do with it. If you feel so energized about their plight, call Obama…he’s worth millions, most of which was absconded from the taxpayer starting in his teenage years.”

The comment above refers to checking the data, but seems to imply in their conclusion that ring wingers pay the majority of taxes since taxes provide social services. But data is not mentioned at all in the statement that people “were either too lazy or incapable of getting an education or a job.” Show me the survey that confirms the majority of homeless people are lazy or stupid.

I wish every one of these haterz could be required to spend a month volunteering with the people they condemn without knowledge. If they come out of the experience feeling the same way, then at least they would have some legitimacy to their views, and proof that compassion means nothing to them.

State officials and those who advocate for the homeless say there is an alarmingly large population of so-called unaccompanied homeless young people, ages 14 to 22, living on the streets and in shelters across Massachusetts. The figure is growing, and too big to get a grasp of because homeless teenagers often hide their plight, and go uncounted, advocates say.

via Homeless teens seen as growing problem across Massachusetts | masslive.com.