Very clever, those terrorists, masquerading as homeless people, or so says the U.S. Attorney's office, based on a State Department report issued last month. Certainly, if a terrorist wants to be invisible in America, a homeless disguise is perfect, unless, of course, the aim is to attract large crowds and then blow them up. Nope, the terrorists know that most of us avoid street people, who can even appear threatening when they stop us for some “spare change.”
The warning sent to federal employees late in August says those fake homeless people may be conducting surveillance on buildings and transit stations to plot future attacks. The government is cautioning federal workers to be aware of “vagrants who seem to be out of place or unfamiliar,” noting how well the homeless blend into the urban landscape.
The homeless may be blending into the landscape, but the panhandling portion of that population certainly isn't. While Dallas voters will have a chance this November to approve spending more than $23 million to help its homeless, the city's mayor is asking residents if they favor ticketing anyone who gives a panhandler money. Likely, Mayor Laura Miller is attempting to reinforce the two-year-old ordinance she supported banning panhandling, which, by some accounts, is not effectively enforced.
Atlanta, too, has a multi-pronged approach to the homeless and the panhandlers springing from its midst. A city task force addresses housing, transportation and employment issues, and not long after her election, Mayor Shirley Franklin created a commission to help the city better understand homelessness. Now, Atlanta, following in the footsteps of Dallas, Indianapolis and Orlando, Fla., has banned panhandling effective last month. The city's police say they will not be enforcing the ban immediately, but rather surveying and cataloging street people to eventually direct them toward social services. When the ban is enforced, habitual violators face community service, jail time and — who thought of this one? — as much as a $1,000 fine.
Another contender for America's most invisible title are the immigrants, who, for the most part, aren't street people, unless you define that as those who stand near a street until someone hires them. And, yes, they blend into the landscape even as they work for $8 an hour to groom it. But when the Herndon, Va., town council voted to spend $175,000 building a gathering place for day laborers, some of the city's residents objected. One local woman speaking on the controversy commented that the immigrants needed to learn English and use good hygiene — as if when that happens, she might invite them in for tea and polite conversation after they spend the morning pulling the weeds in her garden.
Before we become too indignant over how the homeless or immigrant workers are ruining our country, we should listen to the reasoned and compassionate suggestion of televangelist Pat Robertson as to how we should handle those who threaten us: kill them. That attitude is only fitting, here in America's winter of discontent. It's open season on varmints.
