By Theodore Henderson Santa Monica
I have been reading editorials from the Santa Monica Daily Press newspaper for some time and I have noted the increasing hatred expressed from some residents on the homeless issue. Needless to say, it is increasing as time progresses with statements such as these, “business leaders who were part of the public safety task force put pressure on the City Council to do something about the growing homeless population and the anti-social behavior they bring along with them.”
As a result of this, I feel it would be criminal not to say anything. The abolitionist John Russwurm once said, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”
I am currently homeless, and I am tired of having to endure glares, open hostility, and the unjust indignation that some Santa Monica residents display. I am also fed up with the police abuse endorsed by the highbrow residents of Santa Monica.
However, I don’t escape the blame. I am guilty of sitting silent for so long. I did not want to bring more light on the matter knowing that just by doing so has prompted a public outcry against the homeless. Many of the affluent look maniacal when the homeless topic crops up. I was delusional in hoping that sense and compassion will prevail. I recognize now what Florynce Kennedy meant when she said, “You’ve got to rattle your cage door. You’ve got to let them know that you’re in there, and that you want out.”
Thus, I am rattling to let the more conservative affluent members of the community know we deserve to be treated with respect and to stop kicking people when they are down. There is no easy solutions to the homeless problem, and hatred disguised as righteous indignation and entitlement. Carter G. Woodson the historian said, “Man is terribly selfish, and he will take his chances for keeping things as they are in his favor rather than yield to any sacrifice of his position as an exploiter and self-styled superior of his victims. “ Draconian “quality of life” laws criminalize homelessness such as sitting on a crate, riding a bike on a sidewalk and having a shopping cart. It costs millions of dollars every year to incarcerate and prosecute people just for being homeless. Not long ago, an article appeared in the Santa Monica Press about 12 people who were rounded up by the police and arrested for living under the freeway. The article was slanted to present the homeless as a major criminal element in Santa Monica.
The lack of affordable housing in the Los Angeles area generally, along with low-wage jobs, high unemployment, growing affluent and continuing institutional racism are pushing more people into homelessness and give rise to “sun-down town” environment. Homelessness is not a luxurious or camping endeavor, one has to brave the elements, police abuse and public apathy and disdain. One is criminalized for being on the street. Many of the homeless people are mentally ill and require something other than jail to get them help.
W. E. B. Du Bois said near the end of his life, “Today I see more than yesterday that back of the problem of race and color lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this poverty, ignorance, and disease of the majority of their fellow men.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 7, 2006. Read the original PDF.