NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton passed away recently in May 2024 after a lengthy battle with cancer. I remember a few years ago hearing him passionately plead for the heart and soul of his beloved city of San Diego, California. San Diego, like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and too many other once thriving big cities, has been ravaged by thousands of homeless squatters. For over ten years, these cities have been dying, losing businesses, running-off tourists, and ignoring the pleas and safety of their own residents. Virtually every sector of these cities (public parks, neighborhood sidewalks, scattered parking lots) has been overrun by uncontrollable tent encampments.
Rag-tag throngs of filth, crime, despair, and squalor have been described by “blue” city mayors and politicians as the unavoidable consequences of our failed American society and its policies. They promote themselves as the only compassionate segment of society caring for these who have been kicked to the curb. “Why not allow them to at least have the meager leftovers in the gutters of our heartless municipalities?” Indeed!
The fact is research shows that lack of adequate housing is not the problem with over 90% of these people. The real cause of their disconnect and misery is rampant, out of control drug addiction and its related legal and mental health complications. Thousands of dazed addicts wander the boulevards committing crimes, threatening citizens, urinating and defecating in the streets and generally insulting the integrity of our nation’s once proud urban centers. Additionally, they continue to be treated by our foolish and incompetent politicians like members of an exclusive “endangered species” list.
Very little progress has been made in the years since Walton made his plea on behalf of San Diego. There are solutions that are not radical, expensive or heartless. Namely - insist that our elected officials enforce the laws that are already on the books! Ignoring existing laws is worse than trying to rewrite them. Men and women who repeatedly break the law should not be “graded on the curve” because of their self-inflicted plight.
In Seattle, the majority of homeless people, when provided alternatives, reveal they would rather stay where they are. This option must no longer be acceptable municipal policy. Most families of drug addicted homeless men (over 85% of this is men) have tried to help and support their sons, brothers, dads, etc… Surprisingly – or maybe not – without enforcement, there is no incentive to end the cycle.
The media tries to present the typical homeless case as families that are down on their luck and on the street because of health issues, unemployment or domestic abuse, to name a few. However, those types of unique and deserving situations account for less than 10% of the homeless population. City and county services might be available to the truly needy and eligible if the appropriate laws were being enforced.
Woke politicians and elitists espouse a broken record of “here’s the way we feel the world should be” in spite of reality, human nature and history. America needs to start paying attention to statistics, trends, responsibilities and budgets or we will be living in a third world country ourselves.
PRINCIPLES -
· Individual responsibility
· The Rule of Law and impartial enforcement
· Nobility of hard work and effort-
· The need for honesty and courage in elected officials
· The responsibility of an unbiased media
“It’s the Principle” - blog by Art Noyes
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