Readers React: Children cut adrift by poverty in San Bernardino

To the editor: We read often about the horrors throughout the world, but reporter Joe Mozingo’s piece on the horrors faced by so many children from birth focuses on a group of kids closer to home in San Bernardino. (“No room at the inn for innocence,� July 22)

We, as a society, have failed terribly. We ignore the growing poverty in our dense and expanding population, the huge drug addiction problem and the lack of protections for these vulnerable people within our own country. Billions of dollars are spent on worthless politicians, endless wars and more, and corporate greed causes business leaders to evade their responsibility to enhance communities. Furthermore, what was once a successful public education system has become a disaster.

To begin with, we must curb population growth. We need to teach sex, health, drug and alcohol education starting at an early age. Next, we can give humans a feeling of worth through vocational training, bringing back a focus on the arts and allowing educators to control the curriculum again. I have touched many lives over my 34-year teaching career.

We all need to contribute to a better, more humane world. It starts today with each one of us.

Dee White, Dana Point

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To the editor: Where is the government — state and federal — to bring immediate relief to these people and especially the children? Why are the police not helping the children to get out of this hell? Why hasn’t the Legislature provided emergency funds to help the people and the children?

How and why has this country become so indifferent to the suffering of its people? What is wrong with us?

Steve Schlein, Venice Beach

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To the editor: Thank you for calling attention to the plight of some of our residents, curious in its juxtaposition with the July 20 article on the misguided plea by Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop José Gomez for the plight of those wishing to immigrate.

My heart bleeds for the children in the San Bernardino hotel, and considering the crime, jail overcrowding, subpar public education system, drugs and homelessness already faced by our area and the whole of our country, how can Gomez suggest we take on more?

Diane McDowell, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Millions of homeless children face daily horrors like those depicted in your story. Adding insult to injury is that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policy doesn’t consider them homeless.

Most homeless children — including nearly 260,000 attending California schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education — lead transient lives: motel one night, a friend’s couch the next. In every way that matters, they’re homeless.

But HUD says they’re not, technically. So HUD won’t help them find a safe place to stay, counseling and other basic assistance. HUD’s definition and its annual count actually ignores an estimated three-fourths of homeless kids.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act fixes the problem, making HUD’s definition reflect reality. If California wants change, its congressional representatives must support Feinstein to pass this common-sense legislation and help homeless children.

Bruce Lesley, Washington

The writer is president of First Focus Campaign for Children.

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