Too many people falling through cracks
I’m writing in response to some of the recent letters regarding “homeless beggars” in Kona and in Hawaii. Some have even suggested we should sell these folks a permit to beg.
It seems to me that the conversation should be, why does the supposed richest, most powerful country in the world have homeless people; could it be that a full-time job at a fast food establishment allows you to eat but not to pay rent? Can you afford to rent a house for $2,000 a month or an apartment for $1,500 a month if you clean rooms at one of the luxury resorts? Probably not.
Wealthy people in the U.S. are referred to as “job creators” if that’s true there should be lots of work in Hawaii, in a state where homes commonly sell for over $1 million dollars, what the heck are the “ job creators” doing with their money?
Why does the richest country in the world have millions of children living in poverty, why do we have hungry people? Why do the disenfranchised drink water that is full of lead in the richest, most powerful country in the world?
In most countries in the world, if you see a homeless person, there is a good chance that you know who they are, maybe your wife’s cousin or someone you went to school with, that seems to change the way homeless are perceived. We think they are morally flawed for not being part of the system, they don’t look like us, we have no idea who they are so we turn our head and walk away.
We often hear about the productivity of the American worker, I suspect most never stop to think what that means, the short version is if you have 100 people with brooms sweeping the streets and you buy a street sweeping machine with one operator, that operator has become 100 times more productive than those he replaced, with technology and robotics the U.S. is becoming more productive.
We need to ask ourselves what we will do with the folks out of work. We can convince ourselves that these people are not us, that they are marginal and don’t matter; however, if we don’t recognize this problem and deal with it, this will not turn out well.
Duane Sherman
Ocean View
On panhandlers and compassion
Mr. Hugo von Platen Luder’s grammar and choice of metaphor are as flawed as his thinking on panhandlers (letter to the editor, Sunday, Jan. 2).
I am glad we have legislators who would reject his proposal to require fees for panhandling. He calls our legislators simple-minded. I call them compassionate and intelligent.
And, what is the relevance of racism regarding panhandlers that Mr. von Platen Luder makes as in “political [sic] correct racism?”
Of course, his writing may have been tongue-in-cheek (I hope), nevertheless it indicates a lack of humanity – which has no place in our great state and country.
Sohrab F. Dorabji
Keauhou