Crumpled Notebook

If I lived in Las Vegas, I would have broken the law today….

I just read an article, or three about “the Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously this week to pass an ordinance making it illegal to give food to homeless people in city parks.” Heck, even the Brits are reporting it.

Apparently they are the first major city in the US to make helping people a crime, with a fine of up to $1000 and six month in the slammer!

Now, I’m sure they claim they don’t want to create a cycle, let people depend on it so they’ll never go out and do for themselves. If that was the case, they could come up with a better plan. Sadly, I’m pretty sure the city council in Las Vegas, and the complaining residents for that matter, are probably about as ignorant as the wonderful little of city of Monterey right here. Basically, Monterey doesn’t have homeless people (if you believe that, I got some land for you to buy too). I’m sure this is the same reasoning behind this Las Vegas thing. I mean, it’s Las Vegas. The land of hopes and dreams, shiney lights and tall buildings. Who wants homeless people entering that dream of fame and fortune? Apparently not the city.

According to the LA times article, apparently their homeless population has doubled in the past decade. With that, they have a lack of services provided, so volunteers go to parks and feed people. Seems to me the problem isn’t the volunteers feeding, but the fact that in a city with so much money, they apparently can’t provide some more services to help needy people.

My question is this. What does this say to people who actually have the desire to help people? I mean, I took my Teen Sunday School class out to the beach today with some sack lunches and we passed them out to the homeless that hang out around there. The kids were excited. They “felt good about doing it.” So what message are we sending to people like them? People who want to serve others? Sure, you can accept the consequences, pay the fines, spend the time in jail, but then soon enough, at $1000 a pop, you’re going to be homeless out there with them.

This seriously makes me want to barf. I also worry about the trend that it could set. I mean, here on the Peninsula, we already have to walk the line with the city about when and where we take the truck out to feed. Thank goodness for the Navy School allowing us to set up there.

I seriously don’t think I can ever go back to Las Vegas. Screw them.