Is There No Empathy?

Editor,

As a long time resident, I wanted to share some thoughts on the "homeless problem" in our fair city. A very wise human recently said to me, "When you have a problem with someone/ something, you're the one with the problem." Hmm.

Another way to look at this - the noted English clergyman and poet, John Donne, wrote, "No man (please excuse the gender specific!) is an island . . . never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Yes, any one of us could find ourselves on the streets with no bail-out in sight. Living our life in a fish bowl where survival is a day-to-day victory. What do some of us do with this knowledge? Deny it and project the terror, the anger that this is the "cause" of our disease: those already homeless. It is far easier to blame "them" for their circumstances, to shout "Get a job!" than to tackle the demons inside.

The Laguna Beach City Council has acted out this phenomenon in front of all of us. Until lately, if proof of this was required, a leisurely stroll from my home, once a month, to City Hall and into the "Homeless Task Force" meeting chamber surely provided it. At times, it appeared to me that some of the members' heads were spinning off their necks! Their denial-filled suppression of any feeling was palpable. (But then, to feel, we've come full circle, back to the real "problem" and to the inescapable truth: It's all about us. There is no "them.")

Now disbanded and reborn into the Advisory Committee on Homelessness (ACH), any one who is interested can show up at the monthly meeting held in the Community Center meeting room. Be warned: comments aren't allowed until the very end.

For myself, I've decided to forego attendance and plunge into volunteering. It is interesting to note that dehumanizing and criminalizing those most vulnerable will not guarantee safety from their fate. The irony is that pulling together and acting swiftly to eradicate this situation, to ensure that basic needs are a right not a privilege, would!

I urge the City Council, the ACH and all citizens of Laguna Beach to take a few deep cleansing breaths and truly "put people first." For the truth, not mythology I beg all to visit www.lbhomeless.org

Cindy Buckley

Laguna Beach