By Maureen Schugardt Santa Monica
My philosophy of life is simple. Life is a movie. I write the script, direct and produce and play the leading role of Pollyanna, an optimist who chooses to see the good in everyone and everything, and therefore I feel good all the time.
After retirement, I chose to live in this beautiful city, thriving with vitality, friendly people, a uniquely livable, walkable downtown with tree-lined, flower-filled streets, shops, cafes, movies, buses to everywhere and a promenade that pulls the community together to celebrate the goodness of life.
Since I come from an east coast beach community, I appreciate the city’s challenge to meet the diverse needs of residents, business owners, tourists and the homeless. I volunteered when it was my church’s turn to provide a place to sleep, a hot dinner, shower, socks, toothpaste, breakfast and a sandwich for the day. When the high school speech class studied the issue of the homelessness, I invited two gentlemen from the shelter to tell their riches-to-rags stories. Both had lost their high paying jobs, homes and families because they chose alcohol to feel good. The shelter had taken them off the streets, and programs were helping them find a job, and eventually a place of their own.
Santa Monica has similar programs for the homeless who make a conscious choice to change their lives, like Michael, a college student who wrote to SMDP that he has chosen to take advantage of Samoshell. But not everyone who is homeless chooses to change his lifestyle. No city program or big budget can change an individual’s lifestyle without his full commitment to change.
Perhaps the city’s laissez-faire policy, which has turned downtown into an open-air homeless shelter, needs some tough love. Tough love says I recognize you as a worthwhile human being. I know you have potential to thrive to the fullness of your physical, mental, emotional, financial and creative well-being. Tough love says if I allow you to sleep in doorways and parks, eat out of garbage cans, defecate on the streets, beg from shoppers, intimidate tourists, I thwart your potential to thrive. If I give you a handout not a hand-up, I do you injustice.
The laissez-faire policy towards begging encourages certain individuals to take advantage. I was waiting for the light at Fourth and Wilshire Sunday afternoon and a 720 Metro from downtown L.A. stopped and a man in a nice black suit stepped off, put a crutch under his left arm and held a clean empty Styrofoam cup in his right. We were both headed for the Promenade. I watched as his coughing and walking with difficulty increased as he came to Third Street. He walked over to a couple dining at a cafe. He put his cup in the woman’s face. She quickly put two dollars in the cup. Several others did the same. I reported this to two bicycle officers who said they couldn’t do anything unless he asked for money. I insisted. They pedaled over and waved him on. He moved on, continuing to put his cup in people’s faces.
When I stayed at the hotel, I asked the foreigners what they thought about America. They asked me, “Why are there so many homeless in Santa Monica?” At that time, I believed it was because Santa Monica was the only town that didn’t support the homeless. Perhaps if the city council dress like a tourist and walk around downtown, not drive through, they would see what our soft-hearted visitors experience.
Ironically, the city has spent much time, energy and money to attract locals and tourists to come downtown to shop, dine and see a movie. But when I walk downtown I don’t feel good. So why go? I feel guilty for not giving every beggar a buck or two. I feel angry as a homeless man steps out of the Palisades feeding line and says, “Take me home so I can prop my sore leg on your lap.” I feel nauseous waiting for the light at Wilshire standing next to the homeless man who smells because he has not combed, washed or cut his hair in years. I feel disgust as I walk down Sixth Street to catch the morning bus and step around a box with human feces in it.
In feel-bad moments like these, I ask myself what is the difference between the Promenade and the ghetto. Both are a gathering place for people. A promenade turns me on. A ghetto turns me off. I appreciate another’s right to choose a diverse lifestyle. But I prefer to support those who need help through my taxes, not by begging. In today’s material world, begging confirms the belief of the beggar that he’s worth nothing because he has nothing. And that’s not true. We always have a choice to find a better way to thrive to the fullness of our being. So Pollyanna, the optimist who chooses to see good in everyone and everything, has chosen to rewrite her script and celebrate the good life in a different location.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2002. Read the original PDF.