Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Another Letter

As a follow-up to some old business, I have still not heard back from the American Cancer Society regarding my questions behind population study samples. I did receive the other day a survey fom one of their marketing folks which essentially wanted me to rate the ACS overall. I merely sent back a reply that I still await their response.

Speaking of letters, the following is something I just sent to the National Coalition for the Homeless. Ever wonder what happened to all the homeless during the inauguration? Yes, me too. Read the letter and I think you'll get my drift in terms of a bit of confusion on my part. And, for sure, read the link that is mentioned. I will publish any response I get (hopefully I'll get a response).

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Hello ,

My letter relates to the following link http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/01/15/where_do_the_homeless_go_during_inaugural/

in which one of your advocates Michael O'Neill reports about the availability of beds in DC. He mentions that there are only around 2200 beds available for shelter. Likewise there's a discussion about lack of transportation to get these folks to a shelter.

I had wondered about this issue before in terms of prior inaugurations as well as when there are major demonstrations within DC---and how the homeless situation is handled in a hopefully dignified manner.

Earlier today, I called several shelters in the general Mall area...and none of the people I spoke to said that they had experienced any problems in terms of lack of bed space or in the lack of a transportation system either. Everyone of the workers I interviewed said that the process went quite smoothly in fact and that "they" deal with this issue on a yearly basis and so a lack of mobilization of resources (my words) didn't seem to be an issue for these shelters.

My comment for you is that the above article seems to run counter to the experiences of those workers I spoke to. I'm just curious as to why there was a discrepancy.

I am in the process of preparing for a run for the US Senate seat in 2010 here in Delaware and I have a keen interest in re-evaluating the policies and, so far, failures of both parties as they pertain to the needs of the homeless. I'd just like to have an understanding from your perspective.

I appreciate your review of my letter and hopeful response and at some point I look forward to working with your organization.



------Jim Egnor

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