We just received a little missive from a reader in response to an article Matt Davis wrote earlier this month about the SAFE Committee’s plans to get homeless people off the streets (“SAFE-Ing Grace: Mayor’s SAFE Committee Could Work, After All”).

One of the committee’s ideas—in exchange for reenacting the Sit-Lie Ordinance—would be to allow people to sleep in parks after hours. Not everyone is a fan of this idea:

The committee even suggested the council “evaluate the feasibility of implementing a sleep pilot project… in coordination with parks bureau and police,” to look at opportunities for homeless people to sleep safely and legally in Portland’s parks.

Since when is camping out in public parks something to be encouraged? Why don’t we start using the atrium at Pioneer Place Mall as a soup kitchen, maybe start running needle exchange programs out of school playgrounds? Do I have to put up with this crap because I am a “liberal”?

Actually, you have to put up with this “crap” because you’re a human being living in a complicated world—one in which those of us who are relatively comfortable can reasonably expect to be slightly inconvenienced in order to help out those who are on the margins.

Scratch that answer. Wm. Steven Humphrey said it far more eloquently: “This guy is a DICK. What fucking difference does it make to him if homeless people sleep in parks? He’s not going to parks at night except for perhaps an in-the-bush blowjob.”