March 6, 2015

This GOP Congressman’s Solution to Homelessness Involves Getting Eaten By Wolves

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/129925033@N06/16223758141/in/photolist-pFhpMu-ptAj1s-pDyxEZ-qJp4kV-przXdm-pX3qNF-qPJutU-qHD14X-qSqzCr-puNAZo-pTUwbc-pHuM7A-pkZi81-pHxMqs-qrTHb9-p49kHx-qajzb8-qarv5u-qSqH1T-q8kky1-qtZ1KP-q9Tbyf-qg6t1E-qQ8Chw-qQ8BgU-pjfvNG-qJR6Jo-odd5sd-ouqm3p-osEJfQ-ouv6xA-osEKqq-r5c2Pr-qzZWWr-pVqzJY-ouEZad-oddCCq-osFhUh-p6vXd2-ouqnok-owsy2v-pVqtrY-qz3F8T-oddhi6-pjfKam-pUG1Dc-p6x2Kq-ode3ZR-osEKKd-p3C2up"> Christoph Henning</a>/Flickr

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Homelessness is a very serious problem. Nearly 600,000 Americans don’t have a home, including one in every 30 children. Recently, we’ve reported on some innovative solutions, including tiny houses and free, no-strings-attached apartments.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has a different idea. It involves wolves. Specifically, releasing grey wolves into the districts of 79 of his peers in Congress who had recently called for greater protections for the endangered species.

From the Washington Post:

“How many of you have got wolves in your district?” he asked. “None. None. Not one.”

“They haven’t got a damn wolf in their whole district,” Young continued. “I’d like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.”

Wow.

If you’re unfamiliar with Don Young, he is renowned for his outlandish antics, mostly about animals, like that time he brandished an 18-inch walrus penis bone on the House floor or the time he called climate change the “biggest scam since Teapot Dome” (a major bribery scandal in the 1920s involving the Harding administration).

A Young spokesperson told the Post that the comment was “purposely hyperbolic.”

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At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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