Plight of the Homeless

One picture, it is said, is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, the photo in The Times (Jan. 22) of the homeless sleeping in cardboard boxes on our city streets, bespeaks volumes about the reality of life for far too many Americans today.

It is a fact that despite our country’s wealth and power, many people, through no fault of their own--because of mental illness, job loss and the unavailability of affordable housing--daily join the ranks of the impoverished and homeless.

Our value system is badly skewed when our government cuts back on programs for the poor, the sick, the elderly--even as it proposes yet another multibillion-dollar defense budget.

What will bloated amounts for defense gain us when our public transportation systems, our bridges, our roads, are allowed to decay? When the pollution of our drinking water is deemed by our President to be “too costly” to correct? What will defense funds do for an educational system that is steadily declining in quality in comparison to that of other industrialized nations?

What, finally, will we have left to defend?

JOAN SCOTT

Los Angeles