An Immodest Proposal, by Dr. Helmut Schleppend, is a literary curiosity from the posthumous papers of the late Dr. Helmut Schleppend, Head Physician of the Inpatient Psychiatric Care Unit of an important hospital in Portland, OR. It is, in the physician and authorʼs own words, “for improving the social, economical and psychiatric situation of one group of people in America, for making them happier, freer, more respected and self-respecting, not to mention useful participants in society, now and for the foreseeable future.” An ambitious, if not impossible, goal that the doctor was not shy to advocate whenever the opportunity arose, and was on the verge of putting into practice, if not for his untimely death.

It is a proposal to end all homelessness, with a discussion of other ills plaguing his city, and country. The good doctor wrote: “I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of homeless people on sidewalks, beside roads, on small grass strips, under bridges, down by the river, is in the present deplorable state of the union, a very great national burden, a huge grievance, a shame even, a danger, a drag on the economy,... my intention is far from being confined to provide only for homeless and professed beggars: it is of a much greater extent, and shall include, ʻembrace,ʼ the whole number of people, of all races...”

View on Amazon