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# The ‘haves’ must help the ‘have nots’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-haves-must-help-the-have-nots-editor/
- Published: 2005-09-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:47:18.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Stephen Martin Santa Monica*

It’s inherently strange to consider these United States with “refugees” but that is indeed what we have. Refugees. Homeless, now jobless, and not anchored anywhere in particular. We’re used to tight pat solutions. Nice sound bites from our president. Something that gives us solace, wraps it up just like the Hollywood productions our nation is known for. But this situation has no pat answer. There is no simple sound bite. A wound has been opened for the world to see. What has struck me about the whole situation is the divide between the haves and have nots. This ugly wound. These people, like thousands of other Americans, live on the edge of survival. Relying on a daily, weekly or a monthly check to sustain them. No safety net, because perhaps they made more money than the official “low” figure on exactly how poor one must be to garnish any assistance. For the last several years, we have witnessed successful politicians winning on platforms that espouse “no new taxes.” Well, if we don’t have a tax to support our infrastructure and everything that goes with it, we then now have “refugees” in a supposedly first world leading nation, the United States of America. We are now in a predicament that is unprecedented for our nation, and there is no more hiding behind rhetoric or facade. This is the real deal. As the mayor of New Orleans first announced... “This is not a test...” and it’s turning out to be one, for the Administration.

Yes, this was an unplanned natural disaster, but those who could afford to leave are not the ones stuck in the Superdome on their way via bus to the Astrodome in Houston, or worse, dead. The overwhelming majority of those who got out had enough money and means to leave. Thousands — we can see who they are — were stuck and now homeless. Our system is flawed and we’re developing into a two-tiered economic entity. Lopsided with homeowners and the homeless, or those just barely surviving. Parts of all major cities that double of backdrops for third-world nations, in a supposedly first-world country. As much as we don’t want to look at this, or blame those who are suffering, we have to realize it can’t be argued when you look at the indicators of the kind of jobs that many millions of Americans work at. The non-union, low-paid service sector is by far the most touted about by the Bush Administration when they brag about new jobs or employment numbers. What we are looking at is a natural and economic disaster for the nation. The bedsores of inactivity are no longer hidden by our position in bed, we’ve been turned over now, and the bedsores of what we’ve created through apathy are open for the rest of the world to see. Two Americas, unequal and economically divided. The reason that I am jumping on this is because it is readily apparent that those who could not afford to leave are poor, mostly black, some white and elderly, with no money for a motel up the road and perhaps no friends to help them. Or no car to take them there either. This is the reality. The thousands of “have nots” who “could not” leave. Now we must care about them, too.

How this is dealt with is crucial and non political. Those who can lead with their hearts have a huge opportunity to show us what actions they can make to create a difference. These are regular people who exist in every city across our great land. They need help. Someone with heart and compassion, and the power to do so. It is human suffering on our own land, and in our own backyard. Hopefully the short memories won’t abandon these people in October if Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq begin a civil war there. Like our soldiers over there now, these victims cannot be forgotten.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 15, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)