September 27, 2011
4. Newblog2011: 09/27/11 Homeless people at the Boston Public Library
The other day, a homeless man told me that, if you are living at a shelter and get a letter verifying your homelessness, you can pretty much go to any library in the Boston area. He says that a lot of homeless people spend all day on the computers at the library.
I have a library card for the Boston Public Library; I used an ID card with a shelter’s address to get it. I get one hour of uninterrupted computer time per day. Anyone can use the 15-minute computers, for 15-minutes at a time, as many times as he or she would like; that’s why I often end up going as quickly as possible when I’m on those computers, they log off automatically after 15 minutes, as the hour-long one does once I’ve used up the hour. I can't imagine that anything would give more than the hour at a time, even if I had that letter.
I do felt that man’s comment helped explain why the harassment from men at the Boston Public Library has been as bad as at the Quincy shelter, which is the only place I’ve been besides the shelter in Lynn, MA where the homeless men and women interact a lot with each other.
To be honest, the harassment has continued to be bad at the Boston Public Library at times when it’s gotten better in other places. One of the best remedies for discrimination and bullying is for people to be around the person who has been discriminated against and bullied enough to see that what’s happening to him or her isn’t deserved; not that anyone could deserve what I’ve been through.
In the shelter in Quincy, a lot of the men backed off, because I’d interacted enough with them in passing for them to see that what’s happening isn’t fair. I still got hassled there after spending a couple of weeks there, but not the way I did when I first started going there.
It’s as vicious as ever at the library,and from other homeless women whom I haven’t interacted with much.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 27, 2011 @ 1:31 p.m.
4. Newblog2011: 09/27/11 Homeless people at the Boston Public Library
The other day, a homeless man told me that, if you are living at a shelter and get a letter verifying your homelessness, you can pretty much go to any library in the Boston area. He says that a lot of homeless people spend all day on the computers at the library.
I have a library card for the Boston Public Library; I used an ID card with a shelter’s address to get it. I get one hour of uninterrupted computer time per day. Anyone can use the 15-minute computers, for 15-minutes at a time, as many times as he or she would like; that’s why I often end up going as quickly as possible when I’m on those computers, they log off automatically after 15 minutes, as the hour-long one does once I’ve used up the hour. I can't imagine that anything would give more than the hour at a time, even if I had that letter.
I do felt that man’s comment helped explain why the harassment from men at the Boston Public Library has been as bad as at the Quincy shelter, which is the only place I’ve been besides the shelter in Lynn, MA where the homeless men and women interact a lot with each other.
To be honest, the harassment has continued to be bad at the Boston Public Library at times when it’s gotten better in other places. One of the best remedies for discrimination and bullying is for people to be around the person who has been discriminated against and bullied enough to see that what’s happening to him or her isn’t deserved; not that anyone could deserve what I’ve been through.
In the shelter in Quincy, a lot of the men backed off, because I’d interacted enough with them in passing for them to see that what’s happening isn’t fair. I still got hassled there after spending a couple of weeks there, but not the way I did when I first started going there.
It’s as vicious as ever at the library,and from other homeless women whom I haven’t interacted with much.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 27, 2011 @ 1:31 p.m.