Agree with most…
What bothers me is that the attitude to the homeless varies in different parts of the country. You can mention LA, me, Seattle or Boston, and NYC’s common mentality has changed a lot after 9-11.
But too often I meet people holding homeless responsible for own problems. People are probably unafraid to say what they do because such mentality is the prevailing norm for their communities. Homeless are treated differently in different places.
Least of all, do I want Mr. Penny to give his voice to these communities.
I understand only too well why you posted earlier that killing mentally ill is not the answer. I have another story to tell. In my home country, many soldiers came home after WWII missing limbs. These human stumps on the streets made cities look unattractive. One night, they disappeared, being sent out to several islands to die unseen.
Perhaps Mr. Penny, a former Marine, should be aware of this story.
I've come to see the US as...50 **states**...united. United States.
Long post on homelessness and its varieties incoming.
The Federal system has permitted all this freedom (straining our union to the max, of course - BUT not really, as there are many shared ideas across all states). We hope our union lasts. I know lots of people mock or disparage California (or NYC), but the vast number of people who can't find work or a life in the less populated areas...need to be able to go somewhere.
I personally don't meet many (or any) people who regard the homeless as responsible for their plight (although that's complex too: I myself do not think that California needs to do much or any more (proportionately) to help the homeless. I think what we are doing currently is helping a great deal. Many of our homeless mentally ill are from elsewhere.
Sometimes I'm annoyed that other states' homeless people are here in Los Angeles, but I am way more annoyed about street racing and what I see driving every day. California has a history of attempting to deal with, as we say, being the last New Place that people can move - and having great weather which invites them. We are at the edge of the populated world, If we look at the regions of the world in terms of "how long have humans been messing with the place?" it's quite a story.
Climate and weather play a big role. My dad was a homeless person who came to SoCal during the Great Depression. He had one (weirdo) relative who sometimes allowed him a home and sometimes didn't (similar to some of my students). He could not cope with homelessness/semi-homelessness in the VERY cold weather of the Central Plains.
He said that he would never go back to cold weather, having suffered so much outdoors as a kid (his family housed him then, but he had to work to pay for food and to help his family - it was hard, bitter work; he was not mentally ill).
Here in California we have many non-mentally ill homeless; we don't have as extensive a subway system; we spend more per capita on policing (not sure why NYC can't work it out - with so many rich people?) We think it's about half of the homeless who are neither mentally ill NOR drug users.
A good number are single mothers living in cars, with extraordinary stories to tell (and very little internet access). A lot are single young males (mostly Anglo-Euoprean; aged 14-early 20's). We get lots of young male "fugitives" from other states. The streets of San Francisco and parts of L.A. have rows and rows of them in sleeping bags. Crime is frequent in that sector and of course, some are mentally ill (or become mentally ill from the stress of being homeless).
We have all manner of what can be loosely called "gypsies" (not the ethnic group, the lifestyle) and the weather has a lot to do with it. Unfortunately, many don't realize how cold (or how hot) certain parts of California/Washington/Oregon can be. They end up moving gradually inland (Nevada has jobs; Nevada has tons of "campgrounds" that are parking lots, etc.)
Anyway, NY, Mass, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii are all relatively homeless friendly - but there are limits, anywhere.
Age old human problem (
civilization with cities is only 6000 years old - and only about 400-500 years old in Canada/US; Mexico is 2000BP for civilization more or less).
People are attracted to cities ("Core" cities have all services and all things; most places don't - I grew up in a place that still lacks many services as it is in the periphery; source: Immanuel Wallerstein's entire work).
There are pro's and con's to life in the Core and life in the Periphery.
World's first city is arguably Ur and it had issues with...incoming people, according to written records that are about 5,500 years old. Humans move around a lot, looking for better things.
People move OUT of places with lots of mentally ill homeless (exacerbating the problem) and the mentally ill homeless move in. Non-mentally ill homeless are provided services they can actually use (like my dad) and get a foothold and a better life. People who feel they cannot move (and feel encroached upon by homeless) are all people whose ancestors made the decision (or they made it themselves) to move to a city.
Humans are dated to 300,000 years ago, so when I say 6,000 years ago is recent (esp. for the New World and other parts of the world), that's my context. We try to pretend that everyone can be literate, everyone can afford electricity, etc. But it's not true.
The story about the soldiers (which I have heard from a couple of others, so I can kind of guess the locale) is heartbreaking and my dad knew about this as well (having served in WW2 and following all mass media as closely as he could, afterwards - he was a reader, though he dropped out of school in 6th grade). I think it's still going on, in various places. And even if such people aren't "disappeared," their lives on the street are partly horrific and partly lived for the gain of the people who steal their begged coins from them/hook them into drug trade and organized crime.
True Crime is a brutal world. Some days I'm amazed at how WSers can handle all this bad news. I wish we weren't so divided.
IME and IMO. We're walking a fine line in this discussion. I don't want people to be disappeared, as they are in some many other cultures. That's not the America I was raised to believe in.
