Don’t get me wrong. I’ve lived here for 20 years and this is my home. I love and adore San Francisco. Sometimes, though, the political correctness drives me insane. This post will probably be uncouth to most people, so if you are upset about non-PC subjects, stop reading now.
Rich has had a terrible infection in his mouth from a broken tooth all weekend. He is in pain to the point of sitting up awake all night. After a 7 hour wait at the SF General emergency room yesterday and a shot of penicillin in his ass, we’ve tried for 2 days to get him his antibiotics. He participates in Healthy SF, a city-wide health care program for the uninsured which is definitely a good thing. However, since Walgreen’s is involved in dispensing prescriptions, we have had to maneuver through long waits for prescriptions only to find out that the Walgreen’s at which we wait does not provide prescriptions under the program. So, still without antibiotics, we have to wait until after 8pm tonight to declare an “emergency” visit to one particular Walgreen’s in the city and then we are not sure they will be filled.
We are also going through a particularly hard time financially so we can’t pay the hundreds of dollars to get his prescriptions filled. So don’t get me wrong – the program is a good thing. And my mentioning this has a point.
I was just at the dog park with Louie. As I threw his stick and he happily retrieved it, a homeless man about 25 feet away asked me to take my dog further out into the park. I complied. At this point, we were probably 50 feet away and he started complaining about the dog slobber getting all over his food that he had spread out on the picnic table. Clearly this was physically impossible so I asked how it could possibly be reaching him. At this point, he left and came back with a police officer who asked us to leave the park.
“While it’s OK for you to be here with your dog, when someone complains we can ban you from the park.”
I stood there in disbelief. A crazy homeless man had the power to have me removed from the park. While his crap was spread out all over the beautiful park. I wondered if he was the same person who goes through our trash every Monday night and spreads it all over the street. He also resembled the homeless man who took a dump in the street right in front of our house. Of course our neighbors were told by the police that “they could do nothing about the nuisance.” We get panhandled no less than 3 or 4 times walking one block down the street to the point where we just tune out the problem.
Services for the homeless in San Francisco are vast, and we attract many homeless from out of town due to these programs. It is actually easier for the homeless to get antibiotics than it is someone who pays taxes, works and supports the services from which the homeless benefit. It is an example of the political correctness that drives me crazy about San Francisco. We’ve become a haven for the homeless and the city continues to support their life on the streets. I am not a fan of the homeless (you have to live here to experience what I mean) and the fact they receive more services in a more efficient and faster way amazes me. My husband has to wait another 5 hours to receive very necessary medicine while the homeless can walk into a clinic and get them immediately.
With this said, I don’t believe in ignoring the homeless problem which is a daily occurrence here and in many major cities. Our government in general just doesn’t want to deal with this issue. It leaves local governments to provide services to enable them to continue shitting on the streets and picking through trash. It’s sad.
Well, sorry about my rant. I feel better now. And if this post pisses you off, I understand. I’m still bitter at Mayor Bloomberg in NYC for putting the homeless on Greyhound buses to San Francisco – another way cities have dealt with the issue. In other words, if you sweep it under the rug, the problem doesn’t exist.
It’s an issue with our society in general. Let’s hope we can put our heads together and solve this terrible problem. The way our political world works, though, it probably won’t be anytime soon.
