HOMELESS IN THE PARK

Greg Beale
2 min readMay 13, 2024

“Sacramento is floundering. Between homeless encampments and empty office buildings, plus a very expensive, shiny, obtuse sporting venue, we now face $50 million in debt. Meanwhile, City Manager Howard Chan is making almost half a million dollars a year ($420,000). This is simply astonishing.”

And Howard is quibbling over office supplies? As a retired civil servant surviving on way less, this makes me sick.” Sacramento Bee.

I live close to the American River in Sacramento California. I attended Sac State in the early 1970s, got my MA and Teaching Credential there.

Sacramento was a sleepy capitol city, safe and beautiful.

We moved back from Redding 7 years ago. Redding, another nice city, that was afflicted with homelessness.

We were astounded to find that Sacramento, in every part, is afflicted with homelessness…setting up pathetic tents, dirty, and many often get hit by cars.

Years ago Governor Reagan, a right wing nut, took dead aim at medical health costs to the state, and especially the mentally ill.

Reagan gained the Presidency, where he adopted the same “small government stance.

Now, Sacramento resembles the Great Depression, tent cities in empty spaces, dirty and hungry people who no longer have the government to help them.

FDR in the 1930s established the New Deal, and was able, with the help of WWII, to establish a government that stopped ignoring people who were down on their luck.

Truly the War helped to get government involved in the poor, the infirm and the crazy.

As a child I do not remember legions of homeless people, camped out downtown, and some crazy to boot. The Reagan Right caused this!

The god damned Republican Party has, since the Great Depression, adopted a “give a damn” toward the poor and the infirm, leaving many to die in the streets.

Lately, the Republicans are in bed with the fossil fuels gang, and don’t care if millions die from global warming!

Same old thing, “give a shit” for your fellow man!

Trump, a fascist, has followed Reagan’s evil ways, by attacking the poor and making the rich richer! He is against responsible government, and only wants government to make him richer…

We face an election soon, and once again we will hear the same evil, fascist behavior, the “Let them eat cake”, approach.

Trump, a Hitler, has declared war on the infirm and the poor. Once again, like the Great Depression, the country is faced with doing the right thing for the poor.

WWII, ended the Great Depression….the way this country is going, a full fledged civil war is possible….and once again the god damned Republican Party is leading the charge.

We need to come together and eradicate the evil Republican Party…

A country is only as good as its weakest and poorest….and socialization has been very successful in European countries, to help the poor.

I am ashamed of my country, the rich make me sick!

--

--

Greg Beale

Stanford grad, BA Political Science, MA from Sac State, Varsity Football Player, in public education as teacher, coach, athletic director, and administrator.