Where Should Homeless People Go?

Congratulations, America: you are on the verge of implosion.

For better or worse, a country is no greater than its citizens, and thousands of citizens are now being legally exiled, not for being criminal, or volatile, or even for being “illegal,” but for being hungry.

“Wait…for being hungry?” Yes. In a brash move only fit for those seated in the lap of luxurious superficiality, Los Angeles City Council is now debating a ban on feeding the homeless in public. Is the City Council homeless? They ought to be; they certainly don’t understand the circumstances well enough without experiencing them, or they’d not be so brazenly entertaining “complaints” from “residents” seriously enough to make a law removing citizens they ought to be taking responsibility for as public officers from land that is owned by the public itself. And lest we think it is a problem local to L.A., laws such as these have been debated nationwide, including other wide metropolises such as Philadelphia and Orlando.

One sickening facet of the entire ordeal is the sheer lack of clarity on basic vocabulary. “Resident” means someone residing in a location; “residents” therefore also includes the homeless, not just anyone with enough money to feel spoiled for having to deal with *gasp* another human being. “Complaints” are for something that inconveniences, not for something that is illegal or wrong. When used about the homeless being on pubic land, this clearly indicates a sense of self-entitlement; the only property you have a right to complain about as a citizen is private property – that is why crimes against your person are possible. Homeless reside and must of necessity act in places that are not privately owned. Those complainers are apparently so rich that they seem to think they own such public land all by themselves. They do not. And ignorantly, the public is therefore rejecting itself.

More depression is on the way, discerning reader, for many of those who agree with the measure are trading sustenance of human life for vacant space: “In Orlando, Fla. a federal appeals court unanimously ruled in 2011 that the city can restrict the feeding of the homeless in order to protect the parks.” Tell me, public officials, where exactly would the homeless go, instead of public land? Their homes? Those lawmakers who restrict the public from public lands sound the most unqualified for such a position since Marie Antoinette.

Sorrow is due to you, self-centered representatives and complainers! For you are all too happy to put yourself on display for everyone to see, but you wail and moan when forced to see your true identity in the face of your impoverished citizen. The law is a citizen’s protection, but you delight in making citizens illegal. And you yourselves are loyal citizens only as deep as your pocketbooks! You would rather your countryman starve than another collect a piece of trash, but you will starve from lack of quality relationships, and be tossed out of office for your callous disregard of problems for which you have willfully made yourselves responsible!

A country’s worth is not measured in wealth, and those that wish to sell the poor for a half-honest selfie and cheap whiskey late one weekday evening in a hotel bar would do well to expect that litter is and will be the least of their inconveniences.