This letter has three basic purposes:  

First of all, I hope I properly extend a formal “thank you” for all of the organizations that are actively involved in reviewing the needs/challenges that folks face who have no current actual address which they can call home. How people become homeless is seldom a simple set of cause/effect measures but more often complex and certainly unique for each person or family that has to experience such. We need to know as much as we can determine factually for each individual/family before any probable resolute goals can be established. We also need to research community efforts that work, according to the opinions of the community itself.Then we might determine an effective model that we might replicate-modifying of course to meet our community needs here in Pittsburg. We have a lot of work to do, and I hope we can gather our thoughts and action plans together quickly enough to impact the growing national issue of homelessness. I offer my support to actively assist with these efforts in any manner for which I am capable and with any entity that is interested in my support. This challenge will take the whole village seriously.

Secondly, I hope to properly recognize The Morning Sun and particularly Dustin Strong and J T Knoll for their journalistic coverage of our community concerns with issues of the homeless. Mr Strong, whom I have never met (but plan to do so), demonstrates solid journalism skills for your publication. His coverage of a recent Pittsburg City Commission meeting in which several citizens voiced real concerns about how we might best address some challenges presented by our homeless population. The concerns are real-time, valid issues and- unfortunately- ones that can easily guide our thoughts to quick “solutions” ... but my best guess is that there are no quick/easy resolutions available. Mr. Strong, I believe, covered the whole scope of discussion in good detail-most importantly for my information was his careful quoting of Mayor Ron “Doc” Seglie who demonstrated wisdom in his efforts to slow the frustration level with the challenges and who also pressed for more complete information rather than relying word-on-the-street/rumors. Mr Strong (Dustin) also gave us a well-balanced report on the presentation made a few days ago in Pittsburg by Ty Masterson, President of the Kansas Senate in which he made strong pleas for the Kansas legislature to pass a flat income tax for us as Kansas citizens. Dustin presented a balanced research of what the negative aspects of a flat tax might be, allowing readers to not simply have one point of view on this legislative plan--unfortunately for me, I have learned way too many times in 76 years that there are usually two sides to each story of life, not just my opinion…thanks, Dustin for fair and balanced reporting: we readers can decide! While I am praising Dustin, I want to truly express my gratitude for his brief but valuable civics lesson in a separate article on our wonderful Constitution! JT Knoll (JT) has noted Dustin’s writings  in his most recent column-thx JT... and thx for your thorough references (as well as your entertaining dialogue) to our community challenges with figuring how best to support folks who are homeless, especially naming those organizations who are leading the way in assessing and addressing as many issues as we can…full disclosure, JT is a close friend of mine-close enough the I could be critical of him if I thought I should (though I’d do such face-to-face with him first, of course)-just to be clear, something I think a lot of folks in government should try…

Last of all, I want to express my appreciation for this newspaper. Local papers are rapidly declining in America, and I hope we can all support this one to continue. We need people to send their opinions to the editor. We need to have opportunities to review differing perspectives. We need to discuss our differences and we need to come together as a kind and loving community-as best we can. No one is perfect- we need to continue to make Pittsburg the very best community we can build.

 John Bozich, Pittsburg