Santa Monica: Duty to Help the Homeless

It sure is comforting to see that Bob Myers is back lecturing to the Santa Monica City Council about their constitutional duty to let the homeless roam our streets (Westside Watch, Sept. 11).

Myers should clearly take pride in all the help he and his Lawyers Guild chums provide for the homeless: keeping them on our streets running rampant over the rights of the majority to enjoy public property it maintains by payment of taxes.

Ah, yes, the homeless “advocates” will provide anecdotal comment that the homeless pay taxes, too. And that’s what it is . . . anecdotal.

Few and far between pay any taxes and in no sense is it reality; in fact, those who do occasionally work do so “off the books” in the underground economy.

Myers and his arrogant “out-of-town” cohorts at the Lawyers Guild are interested only in punishing those who are living responsibly. Armed with their law degrees, they use the courts to lord over the political process, demanding that we feed, clothe and shelter every last person who they identify as needy--even if it costs a small community like Santa Monica a billion dollars.

They will tell us (the voters) what we must do--making a mockery of “representative” government, setting themselves up as constitutional aristocracy with the help of judges in an effort to solve every social pathology that arises in a society where everyone is a victim and personal responsibility is assessed about as often as baseball is being played these days.

In exerting their authority, these dictators of virtue care less about the safety of the majority of people in Santa Monica--particularly our most vulnerable members, the elderly and the children.

How utterly moral.

And it’s so helpful to those who refuse our public shelters and aimlessly wander our streets, isn’t it?

KIP DELLINGER, Santa Monica