- Joined
- Mar 29, 2016
- Messages
- 40,989
- Reaction score
- 55,252
- Location
- Houston Area, TX
- Gender
- Female
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
I spent the day in Los Angeles yesterday for a convention and, to be real, it wasn’t pretty at all. I had heard about human feces and trash in the streets but I thought that was exaggerated and hey, every city has their “bad” neighborhoods. Just in the drive to and from the venue, which was about an hour from LAX, I saw more than just some litter on the ground. I saw dozens of stuffed shopping carts blocking the sidewalks, people with giant bags of cans walking casually through traffic, drivers being hit up for spare change while waiting in line at a drive through, campsites and cardboard dwellings in virtually every open space along the freeway, tents pitched in the doorways of buildings and even streets lined with derelict, trashed out RVs (that **** would be towed away where I live).
No doubt, there are very nice areas of LA, much nicer than anything we have we live. I think, though, what I saw is an extreme example of what happens when you divorce people from any accountability for their lives and choices and, instead, place blame those who do work to take care of themselves. It actually isn’t selfish to take care of yourself so others don’t have to take care of you. Compassion is a great thing and we need social safety nets but compassion without some responsibility is just enabling and I don’t think anything I saw was beneficial to anyone.
/end rant
I've never been hit up in a thrive-thu before. Hearing that's new. I have given plenty of my spare change in my car to homeless people that I see all around downtown Houston. Usually they are on the side of the street. It accumulates all the time, and I'm fine with giving it away. By the way, I'm going to be staying in Los Angeles for a some days next month. First time visiting, so it's gonna be new for me.