To the editor:

The fact that Lawrence’s homeless population has no political or economic power does not make it any less a part of our community or any less deserving of respect. It is all too easy to scapegoat our community’s most defenseless members. By concentrating on small problems that the homeless are supposedly responsible for (littering, harassment etc.), we avoid confronting the larger problem: that such poverty and homelessness exist in the first place.

The city can bulldoze homeless camps with little or no notice. The city could make it illegal to sit, stand or lie on the sidewalk. The city could even shut down all the shelters. None of these “solutions” address homelessness and its causes. They merely make life that much more difficult for its victims and amount to large scale, officially sanctioned harassment.

Homelessness, not the homeless, is a menace. It is the menacing possibility that increasing numbers of Americans, especially those who already suffer from psychological or physical disability, will fall victim to the failing economy and elimination of social services, and end up broke and in the streets, replacing those who have been forced out of downtown Lawrence or left to die of exposure or disease.

I don’t doubt that many downtown business owners are seeking genuine solutions that will benefit Lawrence’s homeless population. It is clear however, that many others simply wish to sweep them under the rug, so that shoppers won’t have to face the unpleasant reminder of our society’s economic disparities.

Corinna Kimball-Brown,

Lawrence