Homeless Remarks Extended…

The British once had a concept of the “deserving poor” and that presumes there are undeserving poor but in our effort to homogenize the homeless population we now treat them all the same. Father Joe does give families a hand up and longer stay only if they show progress, but others do not so “discriminate.”

My objection is simply to government taking over a societal dynamic where there is a perfectly good volunteer effort that the “Founder” of the whole huge system ordered HIS followers to provide.

If they did their job, no government assistance would be necessary, but churches have found it easier to let someone else do their job.

 

When I first published this concept in column form, the largest church in Rancho Bernardo threatened to withdraw its advertising from the newspaper in which it advertised, and a subsequent Letter to the Editor said my suggestion was impractical because the homeless had lice, and there were also insurance problems.

I answered that Jesus ministered to those with leprosy, so lice was a fairly minor problem, and as to insurance I had never read where He directed His followers to help the poor, “unless there were insurance problems.”

One minister in RB took me to lunch just “to see where my head was…” I got the feeling that homeless were a problem for someone else but they were willing to donate money so they and their congregations didn’t have to deal with “those” people.

Priorities, Please!

The state is cutting its funding for students with learning disabilities, and another “Special Interest” will soon be in full screaming mode.

I understand the reluctance of the County to pick up an unfunded mandate, but this one is certainly a higher priority than “public art” — or funding symphonies, for example.

At the same time, this is not an education program. It is a welfare program, and the recipients are deserving of the support if anyone deserves welfare.

The highest priority of welfare should be those whose disabilities are limiting to their full participation in life of which education is certainly a component, but not to the point where the nearly entire issue is managed by an education system already so overburdened that it is not capable of performing its primary mission.

(I think there is a consensus that education is not performing its primary mission,)

This is just one non-academic program that should be cut from education, and if it is really vital these non-education programs funded on their own in a triage manner: Sports, nutrician, transportation, band, etc…

“Misleading”

One of the services provided by the excellent voiceofsandiego.org is that they FactCheck many local political statements ala Politifact on the national scene.

In support of the stupid Proposition D, a San Diego City sales tax increase so stupidly timed as to make one wonder if state Proposition  19 (the Bong Sellers Full Employment and Annuity Act) might have already passed, the president of the San diego Silly council made a ludicrous statement.

He said that the spending in the San Diego city government has not kept up with the population growth: “I’m going to make just a real general comment because I really believe this. All the years I have been involved with city government for the amount of people we have in the city and the amount of budget that we have — as our city grows, our budget has not grown proportionately,”

So argued City Council President Ben Hueso in an Oct 4 city council meeting, where he chairs a city council primarily made of Democrats, with but two Republicans.

The voiceofsandiego.org says “Misleading1” and promptly publishes a bar graph showing that the claim is false in per capita spending either in real dollars or in inflation adjusted dollars.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_8bfed5c6-e166-11df-a5ac-001cc4c03286.html