Dear Publius:
I found your letter to the Reporter very upsetting. Having volunteered with the homeless, I find them to be uniformly struggling. Many have developmental disabilities and/or mental illness. I really don’t understand how one can be so removed from the suffering of those around one as to simply wish them “cleaned” from the streets (with its Germanic echo). Their “antics” may well be because of impulse controlled problems or for that matter hallucinations.
If you want to solve the problem, raise your voice to increase the funding for permanent housing for disabled individuals. (And I , for one, would hope that they would be housed right here in Hoboken, where they belong. I would guess that I have learned far more about humanity, dignity and selflessness from these residents than I could from many, many other residents. I’ve also had many a good laugh at seeing the world through their sometimes surprisingly light-hearted eyes.)
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”