THE NIGHT AIR is perfect this time of year for sleeping with the bedroom windows open. But the other night, some neighborhood teens were having a great, noisy time of shooting hoops and using their outdoor voices a few hundred feet away. I thought they’d knock off by 9 pm. Nope. Maybe 10? 11? Nope.

I thought about but decided against going out there and asking them to wrap it up. Being a teen isn’t easy. Good for them, I felt, that instead of going out finding trouble, they were home, engaged in a wholesome activity. I wanted them to enjoy it. Were they being thoughtless? Sure. But thoughtlessness isn’t a crime. And maybe more than being thoughtless, they were being teens. That’s not a crime, either, and they won’t get to be teens for very long.

Besides, I had an alternative. 

​I closed my windows, turned on the AC, and fired up the CPAP. It pretty much blocked out their noise. I can’t speak for my other neighbors, but as for me, I slept quite well.

CONTRARY TO what Califorinia guv’s Gavin Newsom seems to think, the unhoused are not invaders. They are victims.

Here is Newsom’s latest on homelessness: “No more excuses. It is time to take back the streets. It’s time to take back the sidewalks. It’s time to take these encampments and provide alternatives.”

To be fair, Newsom announced over $3 billion in grants to treat homeless people who “struggle with mental health and substance use disorders.” Committing funds, along with “providing alternatives,” is laudable. But characterizing unhoused persons as products of “mental health and substance use disorders” only feeds the heinous narrative that would dismiss them as victims of their own doing.

The mischaracterization is as intellectually lazy as it is cruel and monumentally inaccurate. Homelessness is largely an economic outcome. Addressing it requires identifying and addressing myriad underlying economic — and social — causal factors.

Blaming the unhoused for being unhoused only serves those righteous souls who are looking for an excuse, any excuse, not to show a little compassion.

“You feel that way because you’re a liberal,” quoth a perturbed, conservative acquaintance.

​Actually, no. 

I don’t do anything because I’m a “liberal.” Nor do I know any other so–called “liberals” who do anything at all because they’re “liberals.” They may exist, but I haven’t met them.

I don’t think of myself as a “liberal.” It is not, for me, an identity.

“Liberal” is a term that some affix to me because of what I feel, do, and decide. It comes after the fact. What comes before the fact? In my case it’s fact–checking, reasoning, and engaging in empathy, all while remaining open to a change of mind and heart if and as I learn more. 

By contrast, “conservative” seems to be very much an identity for many. Not a few conservatives have out–and–out told me they take certain stands because, well, because they’re conservatives. Why do you feel that way? “Because I’m a conservative.” Why did you vote for that candidate? “Because I’m a conservative.” Why do you support / oppose this measure? “Because I’m a conservative.” That it’s circular reasoning doesn’t seem to give them pause.

For the record, here’s where my fact–checking, reasoning, and empathy have led me as of this writing:

• I believe humans are one family. No population is intrinsically inferior or superior, worthier or unworthier.
• I believe that empathy, humility, compassion, fairness, and equity matter, and that they matter a hell of a lot more than the economy, which also matters.
• I believe that acknowledging factors beyond one’s control, for the successful as well as the destitute and all in–between, helps breed empathy, humility, compassion, fairness, and equity.
• I believe that no one should be deprived of food, shelter, or medical care.
• I believe that racism is real, that anti-racism is imperative, and that the latter demands our ongoing vigilance.
• I believe that I have no say in anyone’s sexual orientation and / or gender.
• I believe that unbridled capitalism is a prescription for inequity and injustice.
• I believe that democracy is not without danger, especially without built–in protections for the rights of the minority.
• I believe in freedom of thought and of religion, and that such is possible only to the extent that government and religion stay out of one another’s business.
• I believe the environment is in danger and that we damn well better wake up.

​Because I believe these things, some people  call me a “liberal.” Like it’s a bad thing.