City: "We should make it harder for people to help others"

The City of Hagerstown thinks people are helping other people too much and they want to know if they can make that illegal. No, I am not making this shit up. I'm merely mildly paraphrasing.

The title of that article is "City seeks help to slow growth of downtown social-service groups." The worst part is that the writer of the article completely fails to question whether it is a good idea to do so, you know, by getting the other side of the story, from those who run these programs or those who use them, like a good journalist. But then again, it's the Herald Mail. They don't have any good journalists.

Unlike many from my generation, apparently, I am not one to take offense easily. I try my damnedest to see both sides of a situation and am more likely to give people the benefit of the doubt than otherwise. But this is really fucking offensive.

Why the Sheriff shouldn't have Grenade Launchers

Shit like this is exactly why no one in their right mind should trust LEOs with grenade launchers.

Cool Thing of the Day: St. John's Shelter

St. John's Episcopal Church in Hagerstown runs a five-apartment homeless shelter downtown. It is specifically for homeless families. Each family gets its own apartment for the duration of their stay at the shelter, and it is in every way just like having your own place.

I should know; our family stayed there when I was six years old. Over Christmas. At that time, the church only had three apartments, one of which was occupied by a caretaker (I think her name was Betty?), so it was our family and one in the apartment above us. The church was later able to buy the building next door, adding three new units and more than doubling the number of families they could help.

Now, I can't claim to remember the specifics of their program, but I understand from what my mother has said over the years that the people who run the shelter really do try hard to help out families. They provide parents with information, resources, and emotional support. We had to give up nearly everything back then, and we kids barely felt the loss.

That Christmas was amazing. Everything we got was donated by members of the church. And boy were they generous! We had TWO turkeys. We had our own Christmas tree in our living room. Sure, there wasn't a star or an angel as a tree topper, but there was a lovely golden peacock topper which became something of a family tradition. I received the stuffed dog toy that my heart was set on. But most importantly, we had a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.

If you have a few dollars to spare, I suggest you donate them to this program. You absolutely won't regret it.

Cool Thing of the Day: Park Circle Renovation

Currently, Park Circle is not so much a "circle" as a "knot of five roads that roughly forms something like a circle." Rather than acting like a normal circle, such as you might see literally anywhere else on Earth wherein traffic entering the circle yields to traffic already in the circle, Park Circle has four points where traffic in the circle yields to traffic entering the circle. The whole thing is an absolute mess and I have long said that Hagerstown should make it a tourist spot. Stupidest Circle in the World. Honestly, you have to see it to believe it.

Riot Gear and Grenade Launchers

This afternoon, Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore will be meeting with the County Commissioners, requesting an "emergency procurement" of over $68,000 in riot gear, including helmets, shields, gas masks, and 3 grenade launchers. I sent an email to the commissioners, below.