Palmer Events Center
Is This Who We Are Now?
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 13, 2020
Dear Editor,
I’m trying so hard to not lose my faith in humanity. I know there are good people out there, but in the last week I’ve seen two horrible displays of inhumanity Downtown. The building housing Gold’s Gym on Sixth Street has somehow lost all sense of shame and installed outdoor speakers blasting an air horn sound every 30 seconds or so next to several “No Loitering” signs very clearly intended to run off homeless people in the vicinity. After that brazen display of assholery, I thought I had seen the worst anti-homeless harassment coordinated by a business. But the Library Bar on Dirty Sixth said, “Hold my watery bottom-shelf cranberry vodka.” They chose a truly disgusting and illegal plan to “eliminate the homeless” as they told me when I asked them about the new addition in the alley. The Library Bar installed sprinklers above their back doors facing the alley behind the bar to water a large area of asphalt and recycling and trash dumpsters. They claim the sprinklers go off for a minute straight every hour to soak homeless people in the alley IN THE WINTER. The awful, entitled door guy at the Library Bar would not entertain that their sprinkler installation was anything other than heroic. Is this who we are now? I’m so sad to know that there are multiple people out there that were willing to agree to this type of harassment and lacked the empathy and shame that would keep them from going through with it. And I’m worried that there are probably many more people that are just fine with this.
I’m trying so hard to not lose my faith in humanity. I know there are good people out there, but in the last week I’ve seen two horrible displays of inhumanity Downtown. The building housing Gold’s Gym on Sixth Street has somehow lost all sense of shame and installed outdoor speakers blasting an air horn sound every 30 seconds or so next to several “No Loitering” signs very clearly intended to run off homeless people in the vicinity. After that brazen display of assholery, I thought I had seen the worst anti-homeless harassment coordinated by a business. But the Library Bar on Dirty Sixth said, “Hold my watery bottom-shelf cranberry vodka.” They chose a truly disgusting and illegal plan to “eliminate the homeless” as they told me when I asked them about the new addition in the alley. The Library Bar installed sprinklers above their back doors facing the alley behind the bar to water a large area of asphalt and recycling and trash dumpsters. They claim the sprinklers go off for a minute straight every hour to soak homeless people in the alley IN THE WINTER. The awful, entitled door guy at the Library Bar would not entertain that their sprinkler installation was anything other than heroic. Is this who we are now? I’m so sad to know that there are multiple people out there that were willing to agree to this type of harassment and lacked the empathy and shame that would keep them from going through with it. And I’m worried that there are probably many more people that are just fine with this.
Jackie Ahmad