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This Week in Congress Congressional floor Schedule
Illinois Bikers Win
Nagy Announces 44th Ward
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I haven't been in Manhattan in a long time. It's been close to 15 years, although I have a hard time accepting it. Time does go on. The Mayor of New York at the time was a colorful, former member of congress named Koch. He gave great interviews, and did a fairly credible job, considering the financial mess the city was in at time. Garbage still piled up on the sidewalks, stinking to high heaven, Times Square was still the sleaze capital of western civilization, but after all it was New York. Most of all I remember the area immediately surrounding Penn Station, was somewhat of a free-fire zone for panhandlers. Commuters to Long Island ran a gauntlet of the most aggressive and often gruesome looking beggars this side of Calcutta before catching the 5:15 to Rockville Center. Hard bitten New Yorkers seemed immune to the often menacing requests for money. This somewhat conservative Midwesterner was torn between sympathy for the unfortunate souls, or felling that perhaps concentration camps weren't such a bad idea after all for rabble such as this. Let's fast forward from the Koch years to today. I have read that Times Square offers family entertainment; the subways are free from graffiti, crime is way down, and a new positive attitude abounds in the nations largest city. The man under whose leadership these changes have occurred is a Republican named Rudolph W. Giuliani. Several weeks ago a woman was savagely struck from behind with a concrete block to the back of her head. It was reported that the perpetrator of the crime was a homeless person who frequented the area of the attack. Shortly after that the Mayor ordered a get tough on the homeless policy that would result in the arrest of street people who refused to go to a shelter, and insisted sleep on the streets. According to the New York Times the Mayor commented: "Streets do not exist in civilized societies for the purpose of people sleeping there. Bedrooms are for sleeping." He added that the right to sleep on the streets "doesn't exist anywhere. The founding fathers never put that in the Constitution." As one would expect this has provoked considerable controversy. Perhaps because the mayor is gearing up for a US Senate race against the carpetbaging first lady, Hillary Clinton, this issue has received national coverage. It really brings to light an issue that is more than just political rhetoric. Who owns our streets? Do people have a right to live in a cardboard box on Seventh Avenue or on Main Street USA? Do people have a right to visit the downtown sections of our cities without being subjected to harassment from a deranged assortment of beggars? For too long in this country we seem to have forgotten the root word of civilization is civil. Is it time we brought civility to our city streets? Does a civilization allow a mentally defective human being to sleep on a park bench in zero degree weather, because it is their "right"? Mayor Giuliani seems to be filling a void that has been sadly lacking among big city mayors in the last several decades. That is to say that the people, who go to work, pay taxes, ride the subways, use the parks, have rights too. Giuliani is speaking for a lot of us, and not just New Yorkers. Go Rudy Go.
Michael Kerr
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