Homeless Beggars

You see them hanging around the post office in Los Altos or pushing shopping carts full of junk up and down Bellflower Boulevard or camping in our parks and other places around town. They are the transients who usually do not have a job but instead have signs asking for free money.

My parents were both disabled. Yet, as I was growing up I never once saw them with their hands out for money.  They worked hard at their respective jobs, paid their bills and taxes, and were quiet and considerate neighbors.

I have personally worked since I was about eight years old, watering gardens, walking dogs, babysitting, selling a variety of items.... and that was all before I was even an adult. As an adult, I have been employed in many different occupations, put myself through school, given thousands of hours of volunteer time and have contributed greatly to society.

The transient population has continued grow in Long Beach and throughout California. We continue to have very liberal programs giving them free food, medical care, welfare, phones, etc. If an ambulance is called out in response to their sleeping or being drunk on a sidewalk, that same ambulance is unavailable  to someone who might seriously need it. In addition to that, people give them money in response to their signs.  In other words, we reward them for being transients.

The first step that we need to take is to reconsider the entire problem and STOP giving them money. One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Let’s stop that insanity.

Diana Lejins