On War and Being HomelessCarol Harveybyline‚ Dec. 13‚ 2006It will come as no surprise that on Monday, December 11, 2006, CBS News online reported escalating Baghdad violence. Last week, Wednesday to Saturday, 179 Iraqis were either shot and bombed, or --- in reprisal killings --- tortured, shot, and dumped. One U.S. soldier was killed by a bomb. This, too, is no surprise: Despite Gavin Newsom's 2003 Mayoral campaign promise to rid San Francisco streets of panhandling homeless people, we pass dark figures curled up in doorways on Sutter and Van Ness, sometimes trailing urine streaks. In January 2005, the City of San Francisco's official biannual homeless count reported 6,248 "unhoused" San Franciscans, among these Bessie Berger, a 94-year-old San Francisco citizen living with her caretaker sons in their freezing Chevy Coupe. |