•  We Need Your Help – Lou Boyland
•  Thanksgiving Dinner – Fruit Gallery Team
•  Stand on Homelessness –  James F. Merced

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We Need Your Help

Dear Beachhead,

We are organizing a Books and Bikes after school program here in Venice. Donations of books for young people, bicycle parts, bicycles and bike tools are needed. If you have recently purchased a new bicycle and still have the old one in the garage, we will gladly come out and pick-up your old bicycle.

Give us a call at 392-2162 and leave a message for the bike program.

Thank you neighbor,

Lou Boyland 

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Thanksgiving Dinner

Dear Beachhead, 

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and the 2nd annual Feed the Beach event is coming up. We have less than a month to plan and prepare for this great event. Last year we feed over 500 people from the beach and community. This year we are striving to surpass this number with your help. People from all over came and lend their support by cooking, volunteering, and donating.

We are looking for the same people and more to reach out to this community for this year’s event. We will need people to commit to:

• Cooking: Turkeys, Mash Potatoes, Stuffing, Pies, etc.

• Volunteering: Setting up, Prepare Food, Serving, etc.

• Donating: tables, chairs, chaffing dishes, money, 

Currently, we have plenty of volunteers to serve and set-up. We have a local band set to perform. We have tables and chairs confirmed.

The event date is Thursday, Nov. 27 from Noon-2pm in front of The Fruit Gallery at 1 Westminster Ave. at OFW.

If you should have any questions please contact Nina or James at 452-3034 or email fruitgallery@yahoo.com.

Thank you so much for your support.

Fruit Gallery Team

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Stand on Homelessness

Dear Beachhead,

This is my stand on “Homelessness”. The people out on the streets day and night strive to live life. Some choose to be there. Some struggle to be there. Some fear being there. Some don’t like to be labeled “Homeless”. Some don’t consider themselves “Homeless”. Some really need help. Whether it be medications or social help. Some need food or find food. Some have drug addictions and problems. Some are United States disabled veterans.

Why is it a problem in America to live “Homeless”? Why should Americans, who are free, be expected to fit into the mold of American Society? Whether it’s the two story house with a white picket fence or a studio apartment, Americans should not have to live according to the standards of Americas “normal” views. Someone living in a tent or an RV should not be considered homeless. Before houses existed, people lived in caves or in trees, protecting themselves from the climate.

We should respect these people called Human Beings. We treat our cats, dogs, and other pets better than we do these people living on the streets. We have Animal Rights movements to protect animals and animals going extinct. Why don’t we care about the Human Rights of these people choosing not to fit into society’s mold? The Human Rights of these people may soon go extinct – called the Human Spirit. We should care, respect, honor, and love these human beings that choose to live life this way.

The ones that end up on skid row and are trying to get back into society should be helped immediately. Why are there loopholes and paperwork after paperwork to go through in order to get housing, shelter, food, medication, and other help? We get caught up on our own selfishness and want to ban these people from society. They make up our society as much as the Rich and the Poor, the Black and the White, the Chinese or the Indian.

We should not come up with petty laws to make it illegal for the people to live on the streets. We need to look at our motives as to why we feel this way. This is called Segregation. Yes! Like the separation of Black people and White people or like not letting women vote. It’s a Civil Rights issue. They should be considered as another culture and we should honor and help that culture. For a culture and society that pushed the Native American Indians out of the land to make room for our democracy is barbaric and inhumane.

My stand on “Homelessness” is simply put. Prejudice. Prejudice to their rights as human beings in a FREE America. This may be their “Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness”. Many need help to live life Free, many need help to live life as “normal” Americans do, and many need help to pursue the happiness of living life the way they want to live it.

Whether it be on the streets, park benches, beaches, tents, RV’s, shelters, temporary housing, apartments, townhomes, condos, two story houses (with a white picket fences), or a mansion in Malibu.

Give them respect!  

James F. Merced