Conflicting cards dealt

By Robert Plain
Ashland Daily Tidings

In a spoof on efforts by the local business community to change the panhandling situation downtown, as well as the much-talked about “vigilant committee,” a group of Ashlanders have formed a group they call the “diligent committee.”

“It’s a play on our local vigilantes who seem to want to cleanse the streets of all types of individuals who don’t conform to their concept of reality,” Eric Navickas, a founding member of the diligent committee said in reference to Ron Hansen’s vigilant committee. Hansen’s committee has been criticized for targeting a specific socio-economic group, a charge he vehemently denies.

The diligent committee’s efforts began on Tuesday evening when they handed out approximately 120 cards that urge people to donate directly to homeless people. The Ashland Chamber of Commerce is printing cards that urge people to give to established organizations rather than directly to individuals on the streets. Hansen’s vigilant committee had simultaneously decided on a similar strategy.

“We were inspired by the concept,” Navickas said. “Our tactics are preemptive to what our local vigilantes describe as their tactics.”

The diligent committee’s cards list statistics about poverty in Ashland and suggest, “When a homeless individual asks you for $1, please give them $2.”

Navickas said he and local advocate for the homeless Randy Dolinger, who himself has no permanent address, decided to form their committee in an effort to bring the debate on how to handle the homeless and/or disenfranchised community to the forefront of the local political dialogue.

“So far it has all been behind closed doors,” he said. “It needs to be decided in front of the public eye so we can come to consensus in our community about how to help the disenfranchised members of our community. So far what we have seen is stricter police enforcement, profiling, harassment and an agenda driven by intolerance.”

Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com.

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