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Some Republican narrative, (starting at: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0433/gonnerman.php).

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As the Republican National Convention nears, street people have started to disappear The Ghosts of Penn Station by Jennifer Gonnerman August 17th, 2004 2:10 PM

Every weekday, Ken Washington and Jeff Rabinovici drive around the city in a red van, distributing bagels and sandwiches. Much of the time they work underground—in the PATH station at 33rd Street, in Penn Station, and in the nearby subway stations. They target the people who are most distrustful of the system, the ones who would rather sleep on the streets than in a shelter. Almost all of these people suffer from a serious mental illness.

Washington and Rabinovici make an unlikely team. Rabinovici, a 25-year-old Long Island native, has a bachelor's from the University of Hartford. Washington, 57, is a former telephone company employee who has been living in a shelter ever since a fire destroyed his Brooklyn home. Both men work in jeans and T-shirts. Washington wears a gray braid down his back and a replica of a drive chain from a '52 Harley around his wrist.

Employed by the Partnership for the Homeless, Rabinovici and Washington help people get what they need—a shower, a free pair of pants, an application for an apartment. But it isn't easy to convince somebody who's been living on the streets for years to go to a drop-in center or shelter. In some cases, it's impossible. Or it can require many months of work—of checking in and chatting, of free lunches, of coaxing and reminding.

By now, Rabinovici and Washington know many of the people living around Madison Square Garden. "A homeless person isn't actually homeless," Washington says. "He has a territory he travels in—for lack of a better word, a migratory path. They know the good soup kitchens, the ones that are so-so. They know when the good clothes come in. It's a way of life."

The upcoming Republican National Convention has already disrupted the rhythms and routines of people living in this area. The police presence has increased, and soon the entire area will be locked down, creating a frozen zone. While other New Yorkers have to contend with protest and convention logistics, these are the only people whose entire lives are being uprooted. These New Yorkers include some of the city's most fragile and vulnerable residents—mentally ill senior citizens who have no money, now scrambling to survive outdoors. ...

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Back to live action: As I recall it was 11 months ago the news reported that documents found in Berlin detailed the 1930s Nazi test-case roundups of the mentally ill, then the hospitalized and bed-ridden, then street people, then dissenters louts and layabouts, then drunks, then artists, then the poor, the unemployed, ... and I don't remember all the labels but I think the order of priority is about right. Altogether, the documents listed over 250,000 Germans seized alive, confined to institutions, exit doors locked and gassed to death. And they hadn't even started on the religion-label groups, yet. Today, I see certain parallels between institutions that are physical buildings which can be filled with lethal gas, and institutions that are social safety nets and lifelines which can be Republican-cut to watch souls plummet.

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