Blog 12: Hawaii's Homeless Population

I recently read an article regarding the excessive homeless population in Hawaii. Recently a Hawaiian lawmaker, Tom Brower took a sledgehammer to abandoned shopping carts that homeless people use because he was fed up with the homeless population. When it caused much public concern, he spoke out and said its no different than community clean up. He said he thought of himself as a public servant.  It is absurd to me that he thinks he is a public servant for damaging homeless peoples carts.Many people compared it to taking a sledgehammer to peoples cars. The article discuses that the highest rate of homeless per capita out of any state. One of the reasons for the excess amount of homeless people is from the high housing costs.

This past August the state legislature approved a pilot program program to offer plane tickets to remove the homeless people from the island. They said it would save the taxpayers a substantial amount of money. The article also states that New York and San Francisco have paid to relocate thousands of homeless people in the past few years. As I was reading this article I was appalled that states pay to have homeless people removed. I think it is dehumanizing to relocate them when they decided to live in Hawaii. They should think about using the money for flight tickets to start more programs for the homeless.

Link to the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/us/hawaii-homeless-lawmaker-carts/

Observation:

After talking about Twilight series in class and how domestic violence plays a role in them, I've noticed myself think about specific books and movies in a different light and seeing how violence plays a role within the characters life.