OPINION: Paul White’s Response To Grant Denton: Why Didn’t You Tell the Public What You’ve Admitted to Me?

There are two primary problems with Grant Denton’s op/ed response to my own op/ed regarding Reno’s homeless problem.

1) His response did not sound like he wrote it.

Phrases like, “compelling/divisive rhetoric,” “deem”, and “there’s a lot to unpack” are definitely not Grant’s style.

2) I don’t think Grant believes most of what was written in his response.

Based on previous face-to-face conversations I’ve had with Grant, statements included in his article are just about opposite to what he’s verbally shared with me.

Which of his statements are true? The ones he made in face-to-face conversations, or his published op/ed statements that support his employer’s positions?

Grant’s False Claim: Homelessness is caused by the system.

Reality: Making excuses for the vagrants who have screwed up their own lives because they’ve refused to stop their involvement with drugs, alcohol, criminal behavior, and refusing to get a job, isn’t “the systems” fault. Removing all personal accountability for poor choices doesn’t help anyone – not the vagrants and not the taxpayers.

Vagrants-by-choice do not deal with different or more difficult issues than the legitimately homeless. The only difference between the 2 groups is the latter’s willingness to do what’s required: changing unproductive behaviors and seeking help through the various social services readily available to anyone.

The system does not work against vagrants. Housing availability, employment opportunities, mental health resources, etc. are as accessible as they’ve ever been to anyone willing to seek them. As a society, we’ve misled vagrants as well as many other groups into believing that they automatically deserve to have everything handed to them without any effort or sacrifice on their part. This misunderstanding is a direct result of false DEI woke propaganda that has poisoned our nation for years.

Grant’s False Analogy: “Telling an addict to just stop using is like telling a drowning person to just swim harder.” That is not true.

Non-swimmers don’t know how to physically get out of the water. Addicts do know how to get clean and sober – they just don’t want to.

In Reno, for example, addicts are just a short walk away from more than 2-dozen clean/sober programs, detox centers, and more. Anyone who remains addicted to drugs and alcohol is simply unwilling to take personal accountability and enter a program.

That’s why there’s value in repeatedly locking up criminally-convicted and/or addicted vagrants in jail. It increases their receptivity to accept sobriety services that will improve their lives.

Not long ago, I asked Grant how a no-accountability program like CARES Campus would have worked for him, back in the days when he was an addict and criminal vagrant. He responded, “I would have ended up dead or in prison.”

When I asked Grant what ultimately motivated him to get off the street and establish the successful life he now has achieved, he said, “I got tired of going to jail.”

Grant’s False Statement:  “You can’t blame no-accountability ‘low barrier’ federal funding for ineffective homeless programs.”

REALITY:  Sure you can … because it’s true, as Grant himself has admitted to me in previous conversations.

Virtually ALL federally-funded homeless programs experience the same ineffectiveness, chaos, and violence as the CARES Campus, whose clients also have a variety of guns, knives, and other lethal weapons. Drug and alcohol use, violent attacks against employees and other clients, theft, and sexual assaults are regular occurrences in the CARES programs. 

Think how quickly their programs would improve if federal funding was discontinued, and CARES could operate their programs with the kind of strongly enforced rules that any effective homeless program must have.

Grant’s False Statement: Successful homeless and addiction programs based on religious values aren’t scalable for large numbers of clients. They can’t help those rejecting religion or “religiously traumatized homosexuals.” (What?)

Reality:

A)  CARES Campus has never been an example of a successful program – large or small. Since the day it opened, they’ve had a virtual 100% failure rate, and it’s worsening.

B) Contrast CARES Campus failures with the successes of the God-proclaiming programs of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) over the past 90 years. Neither program has encountered any scalability problems. They’ve successfully helped tens of millions of people get clean-and-sober in 125,000 groups, located in 180 different countries. AA/NA could have the same positive effect on CARES Campus programs if they were made a permanent, mandatory component – for everyone.

I was also puzzled by Grant’s concern that it would be a bad thing if stricter rules at the CARES Campus resulted in many of our local vagrants and criminals leaving town. (What?) To what extent should Reno be trying to control the life choices of any free American citizen?

Grant’s Summary: “The CARES Campus isn’t perfect.”

My response is that you’re not giving that program the full credit it deserves.

The CARES Campus absolutely IS perfect – a perfect example of every single-thing a community does NOT want to do if it hopes to solve its homeless problem and not be consumed by it.

A closing note to Grant Denton:

My dear friend and brother –

I’m asking you to do 1 of 2 things regarding the absurd response that you had the NV Globe publish.

You need to admit that your op/ed’s ludicrous comments were NOT your words NOR your true feelings about my statements on stopping homelessness – something that you’ve agreed with me on in our previous meetings.

OR …

You need to support stand behind the nonsense positions in your ghostwriter’s response, and agree to publicly debate me, something you agreed to do over a year ago.

The public deserves to hear both sides of this important issue and be able to directly question both of us.

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