Well, its the mayoral run off, and also the runoff for district attorney.

I began to lean more on the side of Gonzalez after the initial vote. But more and more I'm heading back to Newsom.

My initial fears were that Newsom is an up and coming polished politician like the current slick mayor who's endorsing him. More rhetoric and the same old problems, right? Well, a big part of this ticket is the gross homelessness in San Francisco. And I've been listenning a lot to the candidates on this issue. It says a lot about how they will deal with many issues.

While I'd love to see a Green Party candidate win, just to shake things up, my main problem with ultra-liberalism is that it completely discounts that really broken people need really strong help. If well people with education, families, wealth and health can destroy their lives with drugs and other issues that bring people to the streets, how can you expect someone with none of these resources to help themselves? Ultra-liberals are so concerned with personal rights and liberties that they are willing to sacrifice anothers dignity for their beliefs.... well, because they feel that the ultimate indigination is to be told what to do and be forced to do it. (They sound a lot like republicans in this respect, heh)

Newsom, on the other hand, has come to the conclusion that the homeless really do need help and many are just incapable of helping themselves. Not always, but often this is true. I feel he really desires to restore peoples dignity through caring for them in ways that they are just simply unable to care for themselves. If we gave them no resources, that's one thing. But the city and county and state do give them resources. I used to think, "Hey we give them help, if they want to destroy themselves further with it, that's their right". But will we contribute to self destruction when we have to opportunity to care for another brother or sister and preserve their dignity?

I don't believe in 1984. I don't think people should be controlled or have their rights removed. But I don't think we need to go to either extreme. We don't have to rob someone of their rights, and we don't have to contribute to their destruction. I think Newsom realizes that there needs to be a compromise between freedom and loving our fellow man, in very much the same way there is a compromise between freedom and loving children that we readily recognize cannot care for themselves. Its not a matter of calling the homeless "children". Its just a recognition and a willingness to say "Caring for our fellow citizens is more important than ultimate, destructive freedom".

I dunno if Newsom would agree with that whole statement... it is where I stand and Newsom seems to be closer to it.

Go fig. My 0.02.

jason

 

Solution:

>Build a big wall around SF
>Make S.F. an independant City/State
>Cut them off State tax coffers
>Make S.F. residents pay for their own city workers' sex change operations
>Let AIDS extinguish all their residents
>Rebuild the city around non-leftist political framework

 

I was hoping this would be a serious discussion.

 

I am serious....

 

 

david,

dont forget to add LA...

 

I'm voting Newsom: Care Not Cash baby! I'm seriously sick of (most not all) homeless people taking their welfare checks (coming out of my pocket in the form of taxes) and using to buy drugs and/or alcohol
Gonzalez is just an unkempt bohemian idealogue with his head in the clouds and his hands in pants. Without a doubt he'll ruin our city. If he's elected I'm either moving to Milbrae or will claim that I am a homeless man that lives in his Impreza -- it'll sure beat EARNING my money

 

WERD

(P.S. I would vote for Newsom)

 

Oh, and about the homeless -- notice that 99.9% aren't native San Franciscans?! They're usually stupid run-away kids or braindead idiots that think they can cut it with a few hundred dollars in their pocket in one of the most high-cost cities in the world. Hell, most of them are too lazy to even find a job here, and they're even bigger, fatter, and lazier than I am!
Now don't get me wrong, there are some truly sad stories out there, like the old, sick or invalid, but they are few and far between. And even they frequently abuse their welfare checks
Ah I'm rambling again... Curse my politics major

 

put the homeless to work...

 

^^^
they usually refuse

 

Force them...

 

Excellent point! I say a better plan than Care-Not-Cash is to take the money that would've gone to welfare and deport them back to wherever the hell they came from!