Variety of solutions Beautiful, wonderful words of life

As an editor of newspapers in multiple counties, sometimes I feel like I get a front-row seat to the problems and proposed solutions owing through the Denver metro area. One of those major problems is homelessness. It’s been interesting over the last year to watch how each municipality and county has chosen to view the growing crisis.

In Arapahoe County, I have been impressed with the proactive, somewhat uni ed, approach many are taking. Littleton, Centennial, Sheridan and Englewood clearly care on a regional level about working together and solo to address the growing crisis.

Littleton continues to take the lead, hosting forums and really working with neighbors to talk about what’s happening. In a recent forum, Littleton gave business owners, community leaders and residents the opportunity to talk about the issues.

Of course, business owners are concerned when the homeless may interfere with their ability to conduct business and if the crisis continues to grow — those voices will get louder.

I was also impressed with a forum where a man who had been homeless and struggling talked about the path back. He talked about his struggles and shared a story we all need to hear. We all say we know it’s a problem — but without a face — we just look at the negatives and want it gone.

What this man did in this forum was personalize a national problem. Our homeless population is made up of human beings who should not be tossed aside like trash. ey are not all associated with criminal behavior and our reporters have talked to many of whom are just down on their luck and falling through a variety of trapdoors that get them stuck. en, we have Douglas County. I can be hard on Douglas County sometimes because I’m not always a fan of the self-care approach to a regional issue. Will a camping ban really work? Is it fair to ship the homeless back into the heart of the metro area? e problem is there and even with e ort — is going to grow increasingly visible in every city, town and county in the metro area until a true, united e ort is on track. elma Grimes is the south metro editor for Colorado Community Media.

Centennial has hired a homeless coordinator to address the issue head-on.

In Denver, the new mayor jumped out of the gates declaring the homeless crisis an emergency. Hopefully that declaration turns into an approach that includes working with the metro area.

Aurora’s mayor has raised concerns over this practice and rightfully so.

A problem isn’t solved when one area wants to shove it out of sight and claims it isn’t a problem in their county. A problem is solved when all counties and municipalities start admitting it’s a problem for the entire area and clear, united solutions are needed.

I get the concerns. When I drive home in the evenings and see growing homeless camps along the interstate — I get frustrated. When a homeless woman takes o her shirt and my children are watching at a red light — I have concerns.

However, I do not think forcibly moving them to where I do not see them anymore means the problem is gone for me.

To those counties and towns already doing it — I say great job. To others — I say the problem is not going away just because you push them out with a policy.

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

It may be a good time to rethink what swear words or curse words really qualify as such anymore. I mean we hear them with such frequency that they are almost indiscernible from the other regular words we seem to use so often. I almost feel like when someone tells me to go “F” myself, they are really just saying, “Hello, how are you?” Not only are we hearing them all the time, but we are also hearing them from almost everyone and from people of all ages including very young children. Not being a prude, I get it, I just think it may be time to change it up a bit. I was walking past four children playing on a beach. ey appeared to be playing a game called running the bases, and they could not have been more than 10 years old. One of the boys and one of the girls got into an argument about whether they were safe on base or not. e torrent of “F” bombs and other awful expletives were screamed at one another. It wasn’t just the words that caught my attention, it was the intensity of their words and body language at such a young age.

Where did they learn that from? Maybe it’s watching news reels and videos of passengers losing their minds and yelling at each other, threatening to `F” word kill each other or beat the “S” word out of each other. Maybe it’s from older siblings or cousins, parents or grandparents, or nextdoor neighbors. It is still happening in the corporate world too. For some, maybe it seems like it helps them to underscore a point more e ectively or seem stronger in a heated debate.

Like I said, it’s everywhere with unabashed frequency and malicious intent. I wish we could ignore them and come up with new ones, but the truth is that nasty and troubling words have been around forever, so we will never change those. But maybe we can change our own use of them and our own cadence, tone and frequency of how we use them. We all lose our cool from time to time, I get it. It really just sounds, feels and seems like we are allowing our foul language threshold to

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Marketing Consultant eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com slip lower and lower all the time.

“But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief.” — Unknown

Words we use should be a construction zone, building others up along the way. Building people up with words of hope and encouragement. Beautiful and wonderful words of life that separate us from those who would rather operate through a demolition zone, using words to tear others down, and worse, doing it intentionally.

So, let’s use the rest of this column to focus on what those beautiful and wonderful words of life are, and how we can use them to foster an environment of love, grace, unity and compassion.

I am not sure about you, but this has been a very deliberate and intentional movement or change in my own life. I was de nitely a little looser in my language and word choices in the past — anyone reading this knows who I was and also knows who I have become, can validate that. I intentionally keep a word bank, a word bank that is top of mind and heart. A word bank that includes words like love, grace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, mercy, justice, forgiveness, passion, compassion, patience, faith, hope, encouragement, excellence, praiseworthy, joy, happiness, pure, powerful, positive, courage, strength, endurance, gratitude, humility, motivation, inspiration, success and so many more.

It’s been said that you can’t trust people who don’t curse. Or, that people who curse are smarter than those who don’t. I am fairly sure both of those were created by someone who loved to curse. How about you, do you feel smarter, funnier, stronger when you use swear words? Or are you a little ashamed or embarrassed at times? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can use the beautiful and wonderful words of life instead, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

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