Remarks on “Good Trouble” by Rick Uhls of United Methodist Church (March 11) are a powerful reminder of the work we (all) face to call out and end racism. Hate in any form is violence, whether it be the injustice of unaffordable housing, poverty, hunger, or any other of myriad manifestations of societal injustice. These are not just words. They point to real suffering of families, children, and parents who struggle every day to make ends meet … through no fault of their own.
A survey in this same issue asked those polled if SLO is doing enough for those who are homeless. A shocking 31 percent affirmed “Homelessness will never get solved. We should stop spending money on it.” I wish each of these respondents could spend a week on the streets with $10 in their pocket and nothing else to their name. Do they really think poverty is the result of laziness?
This is a very sad statistic about our neighbors. I know that I have been privileged from the gate. I did not grow up in a ghetto with substandard housing, hunger, crime, and a lack of decent health care. Not everyone is born on third base. Some are not even in the game.
People like Pastor Uhls are heroes, models of responsible citizenship. Every one of us can take responsibility to move the ball forward and create some kind of “good trouble” to end the violence of racism and injustice that plagues our community and our nation.
Susan Pyburn
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Apr 1-11, 2021.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a excellent response. Unfortunately, as has always been the case, a few psychopaths at the top have long been able to convince those in the middle to hate those on the bottom or who are different from them. Perhaps the poor, the hungry, the homeless, LGBTQ, immigrants, refugees, people of color, Asians, and other assorted disenfranchised classes of people aren’t the problem. Maybe it is the system writ large which creates the poor, the hungry, the homeless, immigrants, refugees, and teaches such hate and intolerance of those who are different in the first place…
Ms. Pyburn — In response to your remarks on SLO County’s homeless problem, I have learned that there are some 5 categories of people who are homeless. Circumstances and people vary from one to the other. The most troubling category are long term homeless men. Some of these have been homeless for 5, 10, and even 15 years. When offered long term shelter, they repeatedly refuse, as they have become habituated psychologically to this lifestyle and have found a way to sustain themselves physically, if fragilely. Many have cel phones and move up and down the Central Coast. They seem to not be able to conceive of any other way to live.
When I see someone passed out, face down on the sidewalk, soaked in their own waste, I don’t reflect on a “cruel” economic system, or “injustice”, or the high cost of housing. I tend to reflect on the willingness of some to throw their lives away in the pursuit of getting high.
I’ve talked to a lot of so called HOMELESS….majority of them are addicted to alcohol and or drugs….very few are the HOMELESS that
our safety nets were designed to save…..slo county have created a STAGE for these addicts to thrive….food …meals….housing….hey…come on to slo !!!