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# ‘They’re Coming to Take Us Away, Ha Ha, He He, Ho Ho’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/theyre-coming-to-take-us-away-ha-ha-he-he-ho-ho/
- Published: 2002-10-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:11:18.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*By Ron Scott Smith*

I love this town, man. Girl, I need this town. Town, don’t walk out on me now. The people’s republic of Santa Monica is under siege. I must have been sleeping — help me out — have we been added to this Bush axis-of-evil thing, or what? For stockpiling programs of mass progression … I think they’re coming to get us. ■ The law and order barons who can never quite get a street clean and neat enough are coming to get the homeless. ■ The real estate barons who can never quite get true value or top dollar for their ownership of the earth are coming to get rent control. ■ Bubba Gump Shrimp came and got The Boathouse. ■ AMC Cineplex 124 — or however many — with stadium seating — came and got the Aero. ■ It’s Halloween soon — and Boo — “monster mansions” are coming to get your little abode and my even littler one. ■ Bush and Cheney are coming to get Feinstein and McKeown.

Paranoid? Well, paranoia loves company and “it’s like this monster is trying to take us over.” So said Vivian Rothstein recently, about the current state of affairs that have come to our town. She’s one of the leaders of the rent control movement in the ’70s, which began to transform this town into one where all class of folks might afford to live by everybody’s ocean. A people’s republic. Where did that concept become contemptible? Does “elitist, obscenely wealthy ruling-class republic” work better for you?

We’re all over the media. The LA Times ran a feature on this invasion of Santa Monica, right up there on the front page last week, alongside stories on invasion plans for Iraq, and now — it appears — North Korea, as the campaign to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction kicks into high gear — with Bushamerica perhaps immersed in its own state of paranoia because they know if they really want to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, sooner or later they have to attack themselves.

And how’s this strike you? Right wing radio hotheads up and down the dial have recently begun praising Santa Monica! What have we become?! When Rush Limbaugh takes you off his shit list, buddies, you’re not doing the right thing.

Another whining, America-bashing, right-radio host — Mike Medved — went out of his hate-mongering way the other day to give kudos to what he usually calls “Slanta Monica,” for passing the ordinance which will make it illegal for decent, charitable people to give food out to the hungry among us — those he eloquently refers to as “stinking human scum.” The same ordinance will also allow for those same “stinking human scum” to be dragged from their cardboard sheets on concrete beds in storefront enclaves downtown, which provide their only hint of shelter on a long, rainy, midwinter’s night in 2002 America.

I came from the woods — a place called Pennsylvania — to even more woods. I’ve been to Hollywood, I’ve been to Redwood … sing along. Westwood, Brentwood, Beverlywood, even Fernwood if I’m not mistaken. Lots of woods. And the hills, so many hills. I’ve been to Woodland, West, North, Beverly, Agoura and even found myself in Lost Hills once, unfortunately. What brought me here to Southern California a couple decades ago, like a lot of you, from lands east and far away — these hills, these woods? That’s anybody’s guess. Keeps me guessing. What keeps me here is not so difficult to figure out. It’s called Santa Monica. How can I tell you? You already know.

Like I’ve said here before — Santa Monica has strong shoulders and takes more than its fair share of the weight of the world upon them. That’s a good thing — all of the over-worked, over-taxed, under-loved, sore-shouldered, angry white guys notwithstanding.

Homelessness. Maybe you’ll say I can’t count, but that’s a four-letter word. And it’s the issue of our time — fully loaded, layered, and complex, with no easy answers, if any answers at all. But how do you leave thousands of hurting human beings out on the streets, hungry and shelterless, while billions of dollars sit in banks that tower over them and give them a shadow to sleep under and a wall to cling to at night? This town has taken the challenge head-on, and so what if we’ve been noble enough in dealing with it that we’re known as the “home of the homeless?” Somebody’s got to do it. Hermosa Beach doesn’t, Arizona doesn’t.

What town are all you naysayers and gloom-and-doomers looking at on a beautiful beachside morning? Does the sight of the down and out in front of Starbucks really block your vision to the extent that you can’t see the sun? Or dull your senses to where you can’t bask in the ocean breeze?

The elections are coming, although many on the edge of mainstream politics often choose to ignore them, thus making their own anti-establishment statement in that way. Now is not the time to make your radical, non-voting statement. Get out there on Nov. 5 and let this country, which happens to be watching with keen interest, know that our shoulders here are strong enough to offer up a minimum living wage, so the hardest workers with the low-est pay in the richest businesses among us, can make the rent and feed their families. The guys that pay that wage to them will still somehow be able to reach for plenty of nice shirts in their closets.

Let this amazing city remain what it is — simply one of the most beautiful, charmed places you will ever have the good fortune to walk in. You know why? It’s got a heart of gold, and you found it. (To reach Ron Scott Smith, )

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 23, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)