ALF Does Antony

Friends, Seattleites, lend me your ears;
I come to bury the Urban Reststop, not to praise it.
The evil of the homeless is feared eternally;
The good they do is hidden with their bones;
So let it be with Hygiene. The noble Yoder
Has told you LIHI was unreasonable;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously the Glen Hotel has answered it.
Here, under leave of Norm Rice and the rest, -
For Norm Rice is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men, -
Come I to speak at the Reststop’s funeral.
The Urban Reststop offered service to us all:
Rick Yoder says it was unsafe;
And Yoder is an honorable man.
Community members planned the site,
Which would include full-time staffing:
Does this, in a mainstreet location, sound unsafe?
When women questioned security, two entrances were planned:
Unreasonableness should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Yoder says LIHI was unreasonable;
And Yoder is an honorable man.
When sued, LIHI agreed to time
To let opponents find and fund another site;
Was this unreasonable?
When time ran out, LIHI began to build;
Was this unreasonable?
Yet Norm Rice says LIHI is unreasonable;
And, sure, Norm Rice is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what business spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all loved cleanliness once, - not without cause:
What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for it?

---

Anitra L. Freeman

22 Oct 1996

(an Urban Reststop was finally opened at 9th & Lenora in 1999)