Letter: Homeless get raw deal from mayor

Wednesday, July 11, 2001 | 9:26 a.m.

Ah, July! What an all-American month! Picnics, baseball, barbecues, apple pie, swimming and, best of all, the Fourth of July! Elaborate fireworks displays enhance the celebration of our Declaration of Independence from tyranny, and the formation of the greatest country on Earth.

July is rife with references to the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross and our first flag, and the Statue of Liberty, with the message, "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to breathe free. Send them, your Homeless, tempest tossed to me."

For the first time since I was a toddler pictured on the running board of my dad's Model-T Ford waving a flag, this July has left me disillusioned and sick at heart. The ideals of our Founding Fathers have been trampled in the dust as the homeless, some of them veterans who fought to retain our freedom, were unceremoniously marched out of their tent city into the greater city and desert. No plan for relocation was in place, so it was basically a death march into temperatures from 115 to 120 degrees, while their own pitiably small shelters were destroyed. It was indeed death for the man just rousted who was murdered a short time later, for the pitiably small amount of money he made working at day labor.

Local politicians have treated these citizens with undeserved contempt, as Mayor Oscar Goodman tries to justify his gestapo mentality and bigotry by lumping them with the criminals, drug dealers and prostitutes (little cockroaches) who frequent the downtown area. Many are ill, and were rendered homeless by overwhelming medical bills.

Some homeless are veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress, and others are seniors who have no children to help them, or have been abandoned by them. They need a hand up.

EVIE KINNEY