Our View: Dreams of plenty - Opinion - DailyTidings.com - Ashland, OR

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Our View: Dreams of plenty Wednesday Sep 7, 2016 at 12:01 AM Police Chief Tighe O'Meara describes the recent phenomenon of young people roaming from city to city as "a 21st century version of the 1960s hippie movement" — a counterculture rejection of modern society that aims to shake up the status quo. That's fine as far as it goes, but when it becomes a burden on social service agencies and encroaches on everyone else's right to be treated respectfully, it should go no further. O'Meara recently attended a meeting of Oregon police officials who compared notes on how to deal with this subset of people who often are lumped together with "the homeless," although their circumstances differ markedly. These are not the same homeless people with mental health and substance abuse problems who are part of the community year-round. And they have strong opinions about how life should be laid out for them. "We have a dream where we all get fed and care for each other," one young man told a Tidings reporter. That's a fine dream. The problem is, food doesn't magically appear and meet everyone's needs. Someone provides it to them, whether through food banks stocked by donors or people walking down the street who are asked for spare change or restaurant left-overs. It was the aggressive tactics of some travelers — O'Meara stressed that most obey the law — that invited police attention. Those willing to help in feeding themselves and refrain from harassing passersby will find more acceptance in Ashland than those who don't.