S T E M  C E L L S ?

      I don't care about the abortion issue. I don't care about the stem cell debate. I don't care about religious fanatics or Al-Qaeda or even genetically engineered grain. There's absolutely jack-shit I can do about any of these so-called pressing issues so I choose not to think about them. People are starving the world over and I get pissed when I burn my microwave popcorn….there's irony there…

      I saw a homeless person on the corner today, not begging, just reclining on the hot concrete like an arrogant Roman, glaring at the cars going by. Glaring at me. I did what everyone does-- I pretended he wasn't a real human being, I turned him into an abstract so I could continue on with my driving. There's so many homeless people in L.A. that if you didn't blur them out you'd go nuts from remorse. I mean, after all, these people don't have a HOME for God's sake. They have no money, probably no family. They're like pigeons existing on what we throw away. Pigeons. The so-called Family of Man chooses to allow certain members of It's Family to sleep on the sidewalk.

      And yet, what are ya gonna do? I remember a bold experiment back in 1986. The people of L.A. finally decided they were going to DO SOMETHING about the homeless problem. They were going to create a place, a homeless camp, an oasis where people could go and not only get fed but have a place to sleep. The city set aside 3 acres of land, room for 1000. They built an outdoor pavilion and filled it with cots and a soup kitchen. The camp would also provide the homeless with job placement and drug counseling, try to find a way to get them off the streets. A noble experiment. I know about this place because it stood not ½ mile from where I used to live in the Downtown Love/Hate loft. If you don't know by now we all used to live in this loft in Downtown L.A. yadda yadda -go to your L/H history for that. The first week of the camp's inception was awesome, the city officials were lauded for their humanitarianism and even the Mayor came by for a free bowl of soup. I sat on the sidelines and watched, I knew human nature and I knew this experiment was doomed to failure. And being the cynic I wanted to see this camp's eventual decay and disaster; I needed to see it.

      After about two months it was pretty obvious that the majority of the camp's inhabitants weren't at all interested in getting fucking jobs. They'd wake up in the morning, line up for the first of many free meals and spend the rest of the day either bullshitting or doing their laundry, I'd see lines and lines of wet Raggedy Ann and Andy clothes put up to dry. So much for the noble experiment. It proved a point, however; most homeless people don't want to join our rat-race, they exist on the fringes for a reason. Oh they'll take the free food and if you gave them a house they'd stay there…just don't think of asking for the rent. This isn't some bourgeois generalization on my part, I lived among the homeless in Downtown for close to ten years, I knew them. Or I should say I tried to know them, you can never really know them. They have walls put up, hidden places, a final Con. I guess I just listened to them. I listened to their stories about how they were 'getting their shit together' and I would always hope it was true. Then that person would disappear from the streets and I knew, I knew they had fucked up again. Crack, drunk, petty theft. When they reappeared a few months later pushing the same old shopping cart down the same old street neither of us would say anything about it. It's a shame… Some are fucked up mentally, some are fucked up on drugs. Some have just gone weird from living on the streets so long. All have had their self-esteem ripped from them like the jaws of a rabid lion. This camp…was a lie. We weren't getting the homeless off the streets, we were just corralling them in a pen like cattle, away from prying eyes. Out of sight, out of mind. The only people that benefited from this experiment were the shop-owners in the Downtown area who must have thought the streets were swept clean by magic.

      A few more months went by. The administrators were angry because nobody was looking for jobs or if they were the workers would only last a day or two. Nobody cared about the free drug counseling, in fact the drug selling and usage in the camp was rampant. The experiment wasn't working.

      Then things got shitty. The homeless people decided to elect a "Council of the Homeless" and for their spokesman they chose a fiery public speaker, sort of a skinny version of the Rev. Al Sharpton. He went on TV and spouted platitudes about how L.A. wasn't doing enough for the homeless, how we were fucking them over etc. all served up on the evening news like a pie in the city's face.

      This is what people don't understand. The homeless as a general rule don't want our lives, they don't want the hassle. They want food and shelter and to be left alone, gathering their spare metal and their empty bottles to scrape up enough $$ for food and a beer, that's all. They have their lives and you can't change them, you can't make them US.

      The homeless camp was closed down soon after that, an embarrassed city pulled the rug out and put them right back where they were before…on the street. The advocates pulled the foot out of their collective mouths and jumped onto a whole new cause, probably stem cell research. If I drove downtown right now I bet 80% of those people would still be there, out on the streets. Working it, hustling, getting by. Such is life and you can't change it. So why worry about the so-called "terrorist threat", if it happens its gonna happen whether we all fret about it or not. Quit giving the Evil Eye to anyone who looks slightly Arabic and count your fucking blessings. Anthrax? You're worried about Anthrax? Better to worry about cancer from the 20 years of cigarettes you smoke or the rectal seizures from the 20 years of Whoppers and Fries or the many-headed Deaths from the 20 years of bad water, bad air, and accumulated job stress. You could get killed TODAY for the car you drive or killed just walking down the street. Stem cells? Does anybody really give a shit about STEM CELLS?