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The Ghost of Christmas Present’s short life passed at midnight Wednesday, and children began the countdown to his brother’s appearance one year from now.
This Christmas, as I do every year, I read Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Immediately after Marley’s ghost leaves, there is a scene in which Scrooge sees a spirit destined to wander the earth without a physical body. These spirits beg and plead with the poor, the homeless, and the disenfranchised, invisible and unheard. What they lament is that they cannot help. It is a tragic irony that while he had the opportunity to act when he was alive, he is unable to do anything now that he has lost his body.
This made me start thinking about homelessness. Is it the same thing? As the mayor of El Cajon, California, I have been an outspoken critic of how the state has handled the homelessness crisis. I asked myself. “Could it be that, like Scrooge, I am building my own burdensome chain every time I criticize voucher systems, torts, and housing priorities?” I wondered. Ta. What revelations would my ghost reveal if I was given the same gift that Scrooge received?
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Reminiscent of the 1970s, “The Ghost of Christmas Past” shows us a California with almost no homeless people. At the time, California was a relative paradise characterized by a sense of law and order.
If we don’t change our policies, California’s future homelessness will be even worse. FILE: The city of Berkeley, California, is being sued by multiple companies for failing to clear homeless encampments. (Superior Court of Alameda County, California)
But didn’t Christ say, “The poor are always with us”? I know the 1970s were full of poor people, and I was one of them. Most people I knew were poor. Still, we were able to walk downtown without experiencing homelessness. Crime existed, but the police were empowered to protect the community. The beach was a beautiful place, not an encampment filled with filth and despair.
why? What has changed? In my opinion, it would eliminate laws that financially subsidize homelessness, keep communities safe and clean, normalize addiction, and eliminate the stigma against vagrants (to use blunt language from the 1970s). ) was a conscious decision to make homelessness a viable option. In my imagination, the ghost would make no judgments and let me come to my own conclusions.
Will the Ghost of Christmas Present show me a dark and dangerous encampment rife with rape, violence, and despair? I’m sure he would do that. But does the blame lie with the people trapped in this hell, or with the politicians? He blames the backroom deals and development deals that sustain the homeless industrial complex – a select few profiting off of $25 billion in wasted funds while the problem worsens and NGOs beg for more. Could you show me the system you have?
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Will the ghost look at the miserable and say, “Don’t blame me for this misery, it’s the work of humans”? Will he point to the people dying on the sidewalk and say, “I see the tents empty, and if policies don’t change, this will be their fate”? Will he show me a Christmas table where people laugh and shake their heads and lament California’s self-destruction?
The last Scrooge-like ghost would be the one I fear most. He showed me a California where cities had become uninhabitable and residents were scattered across the United States as refugees. He will expose the lawless anarchy on the streets where sexual assault and overdose deaths are predictable and accepted outcomes. He showed shuttered retail stores, overcrowded hospitals and public spaces no longer safe. He took me to the ruins of the house where I was born. And a skeletal hand may silently point to a place like Haiti, foretelling what’s to come.
My Christmas wish is that the real recipients of such ghosts will be the political decision-makers responsible for this crisis. May they wake up on Christmas morning with a renewed vision and vigor that puts the well-being of all Californians above greed and failed ideology.
If I were Dickens, I would write an ending where the homeless industrial complex is dismantled and replaced with effective solutions. Most importantly, I want to write happy endings for people who are homeless or trapped in addiction. Not by enabling them, but by enforcing laws that prevent them from living on the streets while providing and, in some cases, demanding appropriate treatment. I hope local governments take back the tools to clean up their cities and reverse the policies that have made California increasingly unlivable.
why? What has changed? In my opinion, it would eliminate laws that financially subsidize homelessness, keep communities safe and clean, normalize addiction, and eliminate the stigma against vagrants (to use blunt language from the 1970s). ) was a conscious decision to make homelessness a viable option.
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Looking back on this, we see a disconnect between the poor and homeless people of Victorian England and the crisis we face today. In 1843 there was no safety net and few options. I believe that Dickens’ poor people would have accepted modern shelters, work opportunities, and rehabilitation programs. Not because they were better people, but because harsh conditions demanded it. “Are there no poor people? Aren’t there workhouses? There are many people who would rather die than go there,” they said. This was their harsh reality.
But today, our obligation to the poor and homeless must be equal to our obligation to participate in their own recovery. The real Scrooge in this story is the political class that imposed a failed social experiment on the people of California, a failure by any measure. May we all see the truth and proclaim, “God bless you all.”
