By Rick Reutter Santa Monica
Regard Ken McRae’s letter (SMDP, Sept. 13, page 4). Yes, extremely poor people — of which homeless people are the supreme example — survive daunting challenges every day. In New Orleans, so the major newspapers indicate, the “haves” of the city piled into their SUVs and got out of Dodge fast, leaving only the poor, or the determined, behind them. And many of the poor who now resist evacuation can be considered among the most determined. The LA Times in an article in the Sept. 10 edition describes the efforts of members of the 82nd Airborne Division to unsuccessfully persuade a number of remaining residents to leave their homes for refuge elsewhere. Imagine. Paratroopers doing the job of social workers. But such is the psychological power of “home” for poor people. A place never, ever, is easily abandoned, especially by people who have so little. For the “haves,” home is only a series of credit card expenditures away.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 16, 2005. Read the original PDF.