Helpful Alternative to Scavenging

* In response to the July 22 article “Scavengers Trash Cities’ Profits From Recycling,” what better way to illustrate our society’s narrow-minded and greed-oriented nature?

We don’t want the homeless in our parks, on our beaches or in our malls. We don’t want them near our homes or our kids or in our cities. We don’t want them hanging around our streets, camping out in our riverbeds, or holding signs by our freeways. We don’t even want them digging through our trash.

No one can deny that, given a choice, we would choose a world that doesn’t have homeless people. Whether that means not at all or just “not in my back yard,” we must accept the situation for what it is and decide how to make the most of it.

Why don’t we make the best of two bad situations and conscript these fellows into cleanup crews for beaches, parks and city streets? Whatever we pay them will be a lot less than what we pay government to do it. It’s that or gassing them like the Nazis did the Jews, because our actions are pointing toward wanting a “final solution” to the problem.

PAUL B. CLINTON

Ventura