LOH Provides Parody to Readers!
LOH UNCOVERS The COVER-UP: Norma HERR vs. Norma HELL
In light of the fact that Cleveland has reduced the number of taxpayers-funded public emergency homeless shelters, it was great that they finally opened up the bidding process so that other providers could submit a bid for the Women’s Shelter. [Editor's Note: There was also a bid out for the Men's Shelter at the same time, but the current provider submitted a bid for the Men's Shelter.] The first round happened earlier this year, and it came out as an unbelievable disaster for those who are in need of true help. Fortunately, I, the "Troublemaker" Loh as some call me, did NOT stop going to various County Council meetings to speak during the public comment period, even after bids were submitted. My statements, complaints, and/or even suggestions were backed up with visual evidence that I provided to all the elected officials and County Council staff at the meetings, and further proven by other women brave enough to attend meetings and finally spoke up. The women staying at the Payne Ave. shelter offered their own suffering experiences under the fear of all kinds of retaliations and losing their housing.
However, during the waiting period for "the moment of truth" ... or the moment of "ugly truth," before the County announced anything about the shelter, somebody at the current service provider's organization suddenly had a light bulb turn on up above their head to start a series of beautification procedures to camouflage the ever neglected and abused facility. The staff found that there were more visitors coming to check out the the conditions and wanted to Come INSIDE of this HELL! The very first thing to draw my attention was, at the end of April when the beautification started, a specially designed new Flyer was printed out in multiple copies and colours with FrontLine Services logo to distribute, and later, also posted by the Main Entrance. I had to laugh-out-loud (lol), thinking "WHOM do they want to impress--innocent visitors or suffering residents?"
Frontline Version
Loh's Version
When I pointed out to the security officer, other residents passing by actually paid attention to what I said. Then, they read the flyer and began their own LOLs while shaking their heads, or started loud cussing with all the complaints using lots of colorful words. But, I wasted no time, and in a few seconds I re-composed MY version of the middle part on Flyer, specifically, the section titled "OUR COMMITMENT," due to my own strong feelings toward the Fake News stated on this flyer to give people false hope. It was my mission to fight back the injustice and to uncover the covers-ups at the next County Council Meeting. I intended that this flyer would be shown and accompanied by my parody version to present to the elected Council. But, even this one paragraph was enough to ease the tensions in the shelter by making them "lol" harder and move on at that moment. Then, within one day, word by word and line by line, I finished the whole re-composition to parody the flyer with a little input from a non-homeless individual as the reality checks for this dysfunctional place. Then later, I presented both documents at two County Council meetings in May as part of my public comments. Please look at the bottom of the Printed Flyer, there is a graphic of House printed in the center. Coincidentally, I already have a non-homeless friend who graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art last year made a logo for our Homeless Arts Project a while ago which is an image of a Broken House Split into Two Halves. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to put on the "designer parodied graphics" on to parody all the way for the full effect: a house of false promise vs. a broken house in reality!
~~~Commentary by LOH~~~
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