Evictions Just Part of the Story About Homeless

When I see the well-fed, well-clothed women (and men) gushing with relief about how nice it is to stroll through the areas where the homeless have been evicted, I want to take back every note I sang at fund-raisers for the Performing Arts Center.

As a once well-fed, well-clothed woman myself who has seen my world spin in the opposite direction, I am ashamed of the “let ‘em eat cake” mentality that prevails in our society about most human tragedies.

And, God help me, I almost wish a similar fate on the out-of-touch gentry that would put them in the position of those of us in exile from privilege.

That fate might range from child abuse that explodes as post-traumatic stress disorder years later, joblessness, mental illness (the genetic kind if there is such a thing, not the kind that comes out of trauma no mind can endure).

What, I ask myself daily, explains people so out of touch with reality that they have no compassion and no sense of cause and effect? Even when they see it at their feet or on their doorsteps.

I do have one more song with altered lyrics:

“Our country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of hypocrisy!”

JAN KNOWLTON

Anaheim