Stop Pulling the Wagon

San Francisco sued amid 285 percent jump in homeless camps

I was in group discussion some days ago with friends.  We were discussing what is happening in some of our major cities in the country and in our conversation, San Francisco, which has reached a near catastrophic level of homelessness, crime, drugs and budget deficit “problems” as a city.  

One of the members of our group, a Pastor,  pointed out that this situation has been developing for years.  Most recently under the past mayor-ship of California’s current Governor, Gavin Newsom and the current Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed.  The very valid question he asked was why, since all of this was so obviously happening, do the voters of that city keep voting for the same folks, over and over?  I think it was about at this point that I suggested something relating to “One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Without order and self discipline we have disorder and chaos.  Streets filled with glassy eyed addicts resembling “The Walking Dead” stumbling about and looking for their next “Fix” of drugs or alcohol.  “Hooded” gangs doing mass robberies and putting merchants out of business.  Ragged “Homeless” people sleeping in makeshift “Tents” and urinating in doorways.  Prostitution and public sex acts.  Unpunished criminal acts.  What we see now in too many of our cities.

It is perhaps too easy to point out that the majority of these problems are happening in “Blue” cities and states mostly under Democratic “Rule” but I believe the problem goes much deeper than that.  While those on the “Left” often feel that those on “Right” are religious fanatics clinging to their Bibles, guns and the American flag, many on the “Right” are seen to be wedded to the belief that those on the “Left” are undisciplined hedonists addicted to drugs, alcohol and whose thinking is ruled by their stomachs and another organ located just below their waist.  While there is some truth to both views, the real problem has much deeper roots.

I am old enough to have lived through the period following World War II and the signing of the Armistice that ended the Korean “Conflict”.  What followed was a period of unbridled growth and prosperity in America.  I remember the often repeated (and probably invented) supposed quote – “Moses told the Hebrew people to pick up their shovels, load up their Camels and Asses and he would lead them to the Promised Land” – Eisenhower says “Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land”.  Times were great, jobs were plentiful, Cars had fins, powerful motors and bumper to bumper chrome.  Color Television, the dawn of the Space Age, Medical Marvels and the “Nuclear” Family with a Chicken in every pot and brand new homes and subdivisions.  

Following the death of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson became President.  During his administration he put forth a plan for what he labeled as “The Great Society” to eliminate poverty “forever”.  He claimed the Country could afford both “Guns” and “Butter”.  “Guns” for the raging War in Vietnam and “Butter” to provide food and prosperity to every American.  Being in my mid twenties at the time, and still a political and social neophyte, I bought the proposal with a starry eyed view that poverty would be eliminated from our nation.  What I, and so many others did not envision at the time was the (hopefully) unintended consequences of such a plan. 

The “Great Society” undermined, and for far too many, destroyed the “Nuclear Family” with a father and mother raising their children in a home with training and discipline.  Undisciplined and dishonorable men could plant their “seed” “willy-nilly”; unwed mothers were left to raise their children without a father in the home, dependent on “Big Daddy Government” to provide for the needs and training of fatherless children.  Politicians soon learned that they needed the votes of  “Public Welfare” voters and so it was to their benefit to grow this constituency by expanding governments role as a sort of “Sugar Daddy”.  The whole process became self duplicating.  Instead of eliminating poverty, it institutionalized it and it has become a kind of cancer destroying an organized and disciplined society functioning for the benefit of all.

People became more and more dependent on “Big Government” programs to the point that Government became a substitution in their lives for God, Family, the Rule of Law and the discipline needed for a prosperous and well run Society.  You end up with chaos, broken lives, more poverty and misery.  What we see happening around us now. 

Defining Sanity

A well run and successful Army requires discipline, order and clear boundaries.  The first thing a new recruit learns in basic training is discipline and order.  Otherwise you don’t have an Army.  You just have a “Rabble” or undisciplined “Mob”. Like we see on the streets of too many cities.

Fixing this would require a great deal of discipline and self denial on a broad scale.  Failing that, the remnant of those who still believe in God, Family and Country can only hope for enclaves of sanity and justice on a small scale within strong families, the Church and protected neighborhoods.  

The above is not a pretty picture of what we face but it is the truth.  Something too often neglected in a world filled with TV ads for “Happy Pills” and “Thrills” from always smiling “Snake Oil” merchants.  Oh, and also crooked, lying politicians promising to fix everything with another Trillion Dollars in debt.

Bob Bandy – February 2024