As we've said, we've been tuning in Q13 TV (Fox) lately because the best TV news reporter in the city, C.R. Douglas, landed there after leaving his 10+ year stint at the Seattle Channel. [pullquote]This is the classic thing where you have a social problem that arises from radical inequality and you punish the people who are most negatively affected by it.[/pullquote]

Our excuse for linking the show this time ain't C.R., though, it's his latest guest—local homeless advocate and Real Change director, Tim Harris.

I've always liked Harris because while he's hyper smart about homeless issues, he's also not a dogmatic blowhard. Lefties who put on baseball caps and make a show out of drinking beer (I'm looking at you, Michael Moore) come across as grating poseurs. It's the exact opposite with Harris. He is a genuinely down-to-earth left winger (or radical?) who is also genuinely charming and even funny; totally comfy in his role as loud proletariat.



Douglas was in Harris' face with all the "questions" everyone wants to ask about homeless people—why are they a nuisance on  the bus; why don't they go to homeless shelters; why should we let homeless people sleep in parks; and re: the latest news peg, why should they get to ride the bus for free?

Harris is right back in Douglas' face. And—eloquent as always— he delivers his best hardline Che Guevara answer with total charm. Asked about homeless people who just "hang out" and "cause problems" on the bus, Harris responds:

This is the classic thing where you have a social problem that arises from radical inequality and you punish the people who are most negatively affected by it. Yeah, there are poor people, there are unkempt people, that ride the buses, but does that mean we want to create the conditions where we just banish them ... because we don't like looking at them? What kind of society do we want to have?