The Sacramento Bee is the Washington Post for California, which is to say it is the semi-official mouthpiece of the state’s government. Today they have a pretty good article about a homeless encampment near the Sacramento River, called by its residents “the snake pit.”
Summertime temperatures in the Big Valley can easily hit 110 ℉, tough conditions for living rough. Most of the residents are strung out, addicted, psychotic, handicapped or merely hapless losers. Rapes and assaults are common, and nobody much cares.
Is this the way a civilized society treats its broken members? Obviously, I don’t believe it is. Which, ipso facto, says whatever else we are, “civilized” we are not.
Perhaps this is libertarianism run amok, meaning you are free to go to hell if that is where your karma takes you. And we are free to ignore you until your inability to cope becomes fatal, at which point an unmarked grave in potters field will be provided.
All of this ‘splendor’ in what is proudly called “the world’s fifth largest economy.” CA Governor Newsom should be ashamed.
