OPEN SEASON ON THE POOR: THE CONSERVATIVE ATTACK ON CALIFORNIA'S LESS FORTUNATE

Recently California's Governor, Arnold Schwartzenegger, proposed to eliminate the following programs in order to combat a $24 billion gap in the state budget:

Healthy Families - which provides medical coverage to nearly a million low income people,

Cal Works - the provider of financial help for over 500,000 needy families, and...

Cal Grants - which provides funds for young people to attend college who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

These cuts would pretty much kill the safety net that the Golden State's poor so desperately needs, as well as leave millions without money for essentials such as rent and food, health care, and funds for college.

As Schartzenegger is a conservative Republican, it was not surprising that he wanted to make these cuts, particularly in light of this mini-depression.

What our dear Terminator wants to do with California's poor has convinced me more than ever that...

1. CONSERVATIVES DO NOT CARE ABOUT POOR PEOPLE.

2. CONSERVATIVES DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE UNDERPRIVILEGED, PARTICULARLY THE YOUNG.

3. CONSERVATIVES DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE HEALTH OF POOR PEOPLE AND POOR CHILDREN, and...

4. CONSERVATIVES DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE EDUCATION OF POOR PEOPLE.

Why else have conservative republicans, whenever they have been in power, have enacted policies that have plundered the less fortunate, often throwing them out into the street and leaving them to rot.

It's clear to me that there has never been a more heartless population than conservative Americans since the end of World War II.

These are the ones who preach "individual responsibility" and "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps." But what about those who don't have any money for boots?

These are the ones who 2,000 years ago would have told Jesus to let those 5,000 hungry followers starve while they divided those five loaves of bread and two fishes among themselves. Or at best, they would have said, "Let them get their own bread and fish."

And these are the ones who would throw those who had run into misfortune, i.e., lose a job and unable to pay the rent or mortgage, onto the street without any compassion or remorse. And the children would be tossed out with mom and dad, too - who cares if a four-year old has to go find a homeless shelter?

Indeed, conservatives are cold, uncaring and heartless towards their less fortunate fellow humans; they seem to consider them as less than human. Just like the school bully who takes lunch money from kindergarteners and laughs at their sobs.

When I was a teenager in Santa Monica, CA during the 1980s, I personally noticed this sense of conservative unfeeling.

In that seaside town during that decade, I noticed a significant rise in people with mental illness and chronic medical conditions, or who had lost a job, out on the streets and the parks panhandling for change and sleeping wherever they could, mostly in the parks. Palisades Park, which is located on the bluffs overlooking the beach, the iconic Santa Monica Pier, and the Pacific Ocean, became a transient tent and sleeping bag city during that time.

All of this was happening during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, which is no coincidence due to the fact that Reagan cut off funds for social programs in that period. When he was governor of California during the late 1960s and early 70s, he closed the state mental hospitals, throwing those souls into the street - knowing full well that they were unable to take care of themselves or "...pull themselves by their own bootstraps."

Talk about heartless, eh?

But I digress - as far as Schwarzenegger, he has shown his true colors by proposing these cuts, showing that he would like nothing more than to make families homeless, deny health care and access to a college education, which is exactly what will happen should these cuts be made official.

I know well that GOP conservatives will be quite upset upon reading this. I will be seen as a naive Communist and a politically correct pinko Socialist who's a lazy slacker and only wants a free ride at the expense of hard working taxpayers.

At best, I'll be seen as someone who doesn't want to work and sacrifice, who just doesn't understand what makes America the great nation that it is.

And you know what? That's perfectly OK.

I am someone who wants to see those who can't look after themselves (and believe it or not, there are plenty of those, more than people think) be looked after. Who wants all those less fortunate to be able to get the help that they need freely, easily, and quickly.

And who wants to see poverty abolished by any means necessary, unlike conservatives who have a long history of only caring about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

If that makes me a Socialist, then I plead guilty.

Someone once said that a society can only be truly judged by how its poor are taken care of.

If such is the case, then these United States of America gets a giant "F-minus" grade, because no other developed country has treated its less fortunate worse than this country has.

I fully admit that I don't have the complete solution to this economic mess in my home state of California, where I've spent my entire life. However...

I do know that our dear governor is going to cause nothing but suffering and desperate hardship to those that can afford it the least by enacting these cuts. And that makes me angry and sad.

Surely this crisis can be dealt with without putting the burden - once again - on the poor and underprivileged. Haven't they already suffered enough?

Do I want to see California recover for this depression, one may ask? Of course I do, but these cuts are NOT the way to go about it.

Don't hurt the poor anymore than they've already been hurt. Please.