By Billy Woody Santa Monica
I read Kitty Monsalud’s letter to the editor (SMDP, July 10, page 4) and I was absolutely amazed at your true ignorance to the problem of homelessness and even more amazed at your idea on how to solve it by raising taxes and throwing more money at it.
Billions upon billions of dollars have been donated, spent, taxed, raised, etc. on homeless problems in the United States. Yet for some reason, we still have homeless folks. So it is obvious — throwing money at the problem does not solve it. The reason Santa Monica has such a huge homeless population is because Santa Monica is an enabler. Santa Monica is like that “friend” who brings a case of beer to an AA meeting and says, “why are you looking at me?”
There are legitimate homeless folks out there with real disabilities who need and deserve the help of the people of this country, and there is plenty of money already there for that. But if you ever walk down the Santa Monica green, as I do everyday for four miles, you will see that the majority of these homeless folks are more than able bodied enough to work their way out of their problems. Many of the homeless choose to stay that way because the shelters often require that they do not drink, smoke or do drugs while staying there. Many choose not to do this and thus remain outdoors.
Now Kitty, if you want to give more money and open your door to your house to take in some homeless folks, please, be my guest. But don’t try to get everybody else to do something because if “feels” like the right thing to do. We have been doing the “right thing” for this war on poverty for decades and it remains the same. The time is to now change it.
And for you to group together those truly disabled and poor with those low-life’s who choose to turn to booze and drugs as a way to escape is incentive at best. Nobody forces anyone to get addicted to drugs or anything else. You make a decision to do it. Yes, some people have more addictive genetic make-ups, but you still have the ability and free will to decide not to go that route and instead take a more positive route to getting yourself out of poverty.
And this ludicrous idea that raising taxes creates jobs. Where did you get that crazy idea?
And how dare you call our society hostile and inhumane. This country and its people give more to the needy of this planet than just about all other nations combined. We have program after program and layer after layer of entitlements for the needy in this country. We spend billions on education and most of that is wasted on the children of illegal aliens. Image what kind of education system this state could have if we removed 50 percent of the students because either they are illegal or their parents are? Imagine how much more money we would have to build better and more advanced schools and hire better teachers? You see Kitty, this is a real solution to the problem. Not just taxing more and spending more on the same damn system that is broken.
Open your mind and stop trying to open everyone else’s wallets except your own.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 18, 2006. Read the original PDF.