‘Homeless and Heartless’

The column by Jeff Dietrich (“Homeless and Heartless,” Editorial Page, Nov. 26) gives us a disturbing and vivid glimpse of street life and the contradictions facing the homeless and the hungry, but he leaves us with nothing useful. Dietrich derides any attempts to aid the homeless through public policy measures, but the most he can offer is “hope,” and then he says that the situation is totally hopeless. He truly indulges his despair by recommending isolated acts of mercy, helping out, spiritual exercises. Religion is his opium.

Within all of this pompous spiritual nonsense, however, lies the solution we are seeking. When poor people are provided with economic opportunities to improve their own lives and those of their children, a miraculous rebirth can take place. It is not magic; it is the native drive of all life. All over the world, when poor people are given a chance, an opportunity to participate economically in society, they reach for it.

In some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable, in China, India, Bangladesh, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the poor and hungry struggle to improve their lot through hard work and by applying every bit of knowledge, technology and assistance they can come by. They have no interest in Dietrich’s helpful gestures. They are asking for an irrigation pump, a piece of land, fair credit practices, basic health care, rights for women, literacy, good seed, hand tools, immunization against childhood diseases.

Dietrich is lulling us to sleep with his hopelessness. What we need is to discover how to offer real economic opportunity to people who want it and don’t have it. This is the challenge. It is surely surmountable. There is no lack of food. There is a huge surplus. We must apply our imagination to providing a genuine chance for poor people to participate in improving their own lives. There is no dignity in hope. There is dignity and bread in participation.

JIM ROSENFIELD

Culver City