Call for Compassion and Empathy Towards Marin Homeless

This coming Monday March 17th the City of San Rafael will be holding a meeting in the City Chambers at 7pm and the Ritter House is on the agenda. From what I’ve heard the medical offices at Ritter have been helping too many people. There are community stakeholders who have an issue with the amount of homeless and precariously housed people who have sought assistance through Ritter.

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind all of the stakeholders of the definitions of compassion and empathy.

Compassion as defined at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compassion?s=t is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Empathy as defined at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy?s=t is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

Personally I believe that helping more people, rather than less is an accomplishment to be applauded and celebrated. If Ritter came in under the cap, how many more trips to the emergency room would have resulted? How many more homeless people would have died? Homeless people are dying in our streets.

In case you missed it there are two wars going on simultaneously in our Marin County streets. There’s a war on homelessness, being fought through institutions like Ritter House, Saint Vincent’s, Mill Street, the REST program, the Downtown Streets Team and New Beginnings. They are fighting the good fight with empathy and compassion. They are helping our homeless and precariously housed make more of their lives, the majority of whom are longtime Marin residents, getting them off the streets and out of their cars where they sleep and into housing. The food, shelter, job and medical services and care provided through the war on homelessness is their salvation.

And there’s a war being fought against the homeless themselves. On Monday night the next battle will take place in the City Chambers of San Rafael.

Antonyms for Compassion at http://thesaurus.com/browse/compassion include: animosity, cruelty, ill will, meanness, mercilessness, harshness, hatred, indifference, and tyranny.

Antonyms for Empathy at http://thesaurus.com/browse/Empathy include: disdain, hatred, indifference, mercilessness, disagreement, discord, disunity, apathy, misunderstanding and unfeelingness.  

Do limits on helping the homeless and preciously housed through Ritter House fall under the definitions of compassion or empathy? Or does such action remind you more of the listed antonyms? 

Homelessness and being precariously housed might look bad, but I guarantee that living the nightmare that we see in our streets is exponentially worse. Most people using the Ritter services have no choice. Don’t take that away from them. Don't put limits on helping people who need it most.

If you want to make things worse for our homeless and precariously housed make Ritter limits more strict, or abolish the services altogether. Then all those people in such dire need will be driven from Marin County. Our homeless will become another county’s problem, because you can be assured that won’t solve their problems, only make them worse. And we can refer to the list of antonyms when we tell our children about how we acted towards the homeless and precariously housed when it mattered most. 

Right now expressing our compassion and empathy are of paramount importance. Compassion and empathy towards the homeless and precariously housed are my priorities. Please come to the meeting on Monday night to express your priorities. Don’t be afraid to take a side on the war against the homeless in Marin County. Right now those defenseless people need as many advocates as they can find.