Debate
Right. The Haight Ashheap Neighborhood Council (HANC) sponsored a debate around the corner from Maison le Trou last night, and in search of some cheap thrills and easy kicks, Huntington and I decided to attend. Imagine us, a room full of hippies and Boomer NIMBY's, and eight people who want you to support them in their quest to turn this city in a new direction. Good times. OK, maybe not exactly good, but at least riveting.
The premise behind staging the debate was the controversy that has erupted in the neighborhood over the Homeless Youth Alliance's plans to relocate to a larger headquarters here in the Haight. One of their services is to provide a needle exchange. Comical "columnist", C.W. Nevius, a violent suburbanite who hates homeless people, apparently issued forth some screed linking the needle exchange and the homeless situation in Golden Gate Park and all the local NIMBY's have been freaking out. So HANC decided we should all get together and rap about rape.
First, the people who go to these things are, in general, crazy. See, most Americans are too busy consuming to bother with participating in their own governance and crazies always seem to have the spare time to get involved. Furthermore, so long as you let the American consume unhindered, they don't care who is in office, only crazies do. Remember this the next time you see some asshole poised to assume power, boys and girls. Only YOU can prevent forest fires. Anyway, craziness promptly reared its ugly head as the president of HANC, while introducing the panel, was promptly interrupted by the purple headed crazy NIMBY lady up the street who lives in the house with the collapsing porch and all the plants. She accused the President of HANC of using a tone advocating the needle exchange, he defended himself against her accusation, some other Boomer NIMBY spoke up on her behalf, and I settled in for some entertainment. Alas, he shut her down promptly and no more controversy was to be had, unless you count the crazies wandering in and out of the room, muttering to themselves.