Where was I? Oh, yeah. Looking at the prospect of being on the streets. Well, I guess the streets are as good a place for a revolutionary as any, although getting internet access through the public library is a real pain - packed in shoulder to shoulder like lemmings all charging together off a cliff of virtual reality. I wrote up a draft of a letter to my congressman which I include for anyone's perusal:

Senator Wayne Allard

I am disabled and currently recieving $625.00 a month from SSDI plus $140.00 a month in food stamps. I have no other income of any kind. Last year I was homeless from July until October and lived camped alone on the San Miguel River in western Colorado. Once a month I drove 30 miles into the town of Nucla to get a box of food that the local church distributed to the area's poor. My story appeared in the Colorado Springs Independent last December (please see enclosed copy). Thanks to the great kindness of that paper's readers, especially a gentleman who was a retired Lt. Colonel in the USAF and the fact that my SSDI award finally came through this March, I was able to pay the rent on a small cottage in xxx through Feburary, 2005.

I am 53 years old, divorced with no children, an only child whose parents are now dead. I have no family to turn to. I did not understand about the housing voucher program (section 8) and did not get on the waiting list for a voucher until January of 2004. I called the local housing authority for Colorado Springs and got a recorded message saying that they are currently working with people who got on the list in 2002. I called the regional HUD office in Denver and was given a number to an office here in Colorado Springs (I'm sorry I can't remember its name - one of my difficulties is short term memory loss and I try to write everything down, but sometimes I loose my notes). The woman I spoke to said that the only program they have available is for people who are able to work. I have gone to the local Independent Living Center and they just look sad and shrug their shoulders. Everywhere I try, they just look sad and shrug their shoulders.

Someone told me that there is supposed to be some sort of emergency housing voucher list for the disabled who will face homelessness without assistance. I asked about this at the local Colorado Springs Housing Authority, and they looked sad and shrugged their shoulders. Can your office please help me with an emergency housing voucher?

I face severe emotional/psychological handicaps as well as the difficulties I have from a mild traumatic brain injury due to prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide from a faulty home furnace. I am unable to leave my home for days at a time due to severe anxiety and depression. The last time I tried to go somewhere I walked around for 15 minutes looking for my car key that I was holding in my hand the entire time. When I first moved in here, my landlord came to my door and I didn't know who he was. I just lost $200 that I desperately needed when I cashed my SSDI check and put the cash I got back into a Safeway bag that either got thrown out or stolen. I can't remember what happened.

Please, I need help. I won't make it on the streets or in the Red Cross Shelter next Feburary. I know that you are very pro military. My father was career military - 30 years in the US Army- and served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam (two tours). I myself worked from the ages of 18 until I was 46 or so when this happened to me. I would work again if I could only rehabilitate myself, but right now I am too frightened and overcome with despair to do anything.

I have been days writing you this letter. I can't find my paperwork or anything to do with my original HUD housing voucher application. If anybody in your office actually ends up getting and reading this letter, it will be a miracle.

What good does it do the citizens of this country if we spend billions fighting a war we can't win in Iraq and rebuild that country with endless tax payer dollars while our own people stand in the winter cold with signs which read "Homeless, Please Help"?

I think we no longer have a government of the people, we have a government of Halliburton and corporations like that. I don't have $2,000.00 or $2,000,000.00 to slip in this envelope for a campaign contribution. I am just one of your constituents who you are suppposedly serving in Congress. I am an American. My father dedicated his life to serving our nation. Please help me.

My phone number is xxx; mailing address xxx.

Thank you.

Sincerely, xxx