The ‘hate mail’ we received over our opposition to the ‘bum’ sticker

It’s one thing to have the OB Rag blog on the front cover of both the Union-Tribune and the LA Times over the homeless and the ‘bums’ sticker controversies, but it’s quite another to monitor the hate mail, the mail filled with anger, and other vulgar comments that we have received over the past month because of our strident advocacy of the rights of the homeless.

So, we thought we’d share some of these time-honored missiles shot our way over the internet/ and email. These are samples of the hate and angry mail, but the hate is not always directed at us, as you will undoubtedly see for yourself. We post them so that they will appear to be anonymous. Be forewarned – many of these comments drip with sarcasm and vulgarity, are very angry, and many take shots at us, me personally, the churches, and the different groups of homeless (bullet points indicate a new email):

• The media always gets the story wrong!!!!!!! I know for a fact that this sticker has nothing to do with groups feeding the homeless…… It’s a sticker intended to get some laughs and you would have to live in OB to understand what B.S. we put up with every single day. We are members of this community and we are sick and tired of being asked every minute we are outside for money, cigarettes, blah, blah, blah… as you may have noticed that the bum is walking a dog…. why the heck does a person who can not take care of himself have a dog? Oh I know the dog does the begging for the both of em!!!!! Feel sorry for these people who can clearly work? RUBBISH

This has been a problem way before the economy took a dive! I know first hand I live and work there!!!! Get your facts straight, maybe you should take a stroll down Newport ave and I’ll bet you will be purchasing one of these stickers for yourself. It’s kinda like the tweekers suck sticker they sell that sticker also, are you gonna boycott the store for them? It’s a choice for the people who the sticker is portraying. They are lazy, no working, don’t give anything back to the community come here and hang on our streets and beg from the people who work, live, shop, and visit here. Yum there’s nothing like someone’s scabby face, dirty hands, ass hanging out of their clothes, stench of B-O, urine, blood and filth when you are in line at a liquor store trying to buy some smokes and shove them in your purse so nobody sees you coming out with them…. get a grip this is reality, I like this sticker, it makes me laugh. This sticker isn’t talking about the guy with no legs in the wheelchair, the Vietnam vet, the guy with the multiple personalities, the lady who takes her clothes off! It’s about the broke and traveling !! Do you people live here, are you blind?

• Oh, yes…I’m judging people I don’t know. I’ve never met the people who have been through my car 3 times in the past month & taking what I worked hard to own, but I’m judging them. I’ve never met the people roaming the sidewalks, spitting large phlegm-balls in the street and shouting out profanities around the kindergarteners as they walk from the local school to visit Santa by the OB Tree, but I’m judging them. I’ve never met the guy sleeping in the bushes and defecating outside the elementary school gates, forcing the school to remove said bushes, but I’m judging him. I have compassion for the woman carrying around a bat and mumbling incoherently while taking swings at the tables & structures at Dusty Rhodes park, but I’m judging her as unsafe to be around and a threat to my family. Feeding, defending, and giving money to people for doing nothing but asking while showing no respect for their environment is not helping anyone. Offer help to those that want it by helping them find a way to a shelter. The rest can be carted off to jail…my compassion for the riff-raff is quickly diminishing.

• maybe you’ve missed signs, cards, etc., making fun of hippies, raw fooders, surfers, skaters, musicians, yuppies, crippled people, etc., but they’ve been all over newport for a long time. We all know some decent homeless folks, and some kooks. The stickers are great and will likely let the trolls know they are not welcome- everyone else knows what a benevolent community OB is and if you can’t handle some long over due stickers, I think you should lighten up.

• Frank, I enjoyed your comment about our other “guests”. And while we’re surely no PB, there is something gratifying about them getting in their cars and driving east of I-5 come 2:00 am.

Their is error on your part, I have helped homeless in the past, and I continue to help them in the present. But I digress! Frank, take a walk outside. Have you failed to notice how many “homeless”, as you put it, are young able bodied men, typically not San Diego natives? Am I the only one noticing this new breed of vermin, slithering in to OB? It is not the people I have a problem with. I can even condone their slovenly behavior and complete lack of hygiene. I am merely taking their actions at face value. The actions of feral children, running amok in you neighborhood Frank!

Ever step on a human turd with your bare feet after surfing?  I find it laughable that you are calling me a vigilante when all I really wanna do is take legal responssible action for my community.

I ask you this Frank: what results are you hoping to achieve by leaving them be and doing absolutely nothing?!  Those that don’t make effort, justify their sloth by picking nits with those that are trying to make a difference.

If you put more effort into your witty reply than you do into taking action, then you my friend, are part of the problem! Kirk out!

• Its a sticker, a joke…Im amazed at how many people are upset over one little sticker. There are thousands of OFFENSIVE joke t-shirts that attack and satirize EVERY race, gender, religion and character. In one year no one will even remember this sticker…get over it. I’ll be buying mine tomorrow.

• I plan to spend $250 on the stickers, just so I can pass them out for free. It’s better than giving money to the Junky Bums that seem to Scum up our City. Thanks, for telling me where to buy them.

• I am surprised your local sponsors are going along with your plan to boycott an OB business. Maybe everyone should avoid all the merchants until this issue is fully resolved. Also, you could issue an OB Rag sticker to certify a business is homeless friendly and boycott anyone who fails to meet your standards.

• “The romantic ‘hippiness’”??? Oh, please! There’s nothing “romantic” about being lazy and sponging off hard working people. These bums need to get a job and stop promoting their spoiled sense of entitlement. The Black’s position has nothing to do with hatred – unless it is a hatred of laziness, which I’m all for. Keep up the good work, The Black! Believe me – there are WAY more people out there who agree with your position than oppose it. I don’t smoke, but I’m going to visit your shop and spend some money there just because of your courage to speak the truth.

• I plan to go down there and buy something today, even though I don’t need anything, just to support The Black for standing up not only to the homeless trash but also the way you are villainizing them on this site.

• Can I ask where you were born and raised? Was it in a place where hypodermic needles and broken bottles hide beneath shallow sand? In a place where dirty and rude, not to mention fully physically able 20 somethings lined store fronts and street corners? This is where I came from, who are you to take a stand in our home.

• Why don’t you come down and clean up the homeless mess on a daily basis. You are completely out of touch. These people are dangerous and extremely dirty. I wake up almost every day and have to pick up human waist.   Wake up and stop enabling the ongoing rise in this problem.  You are also the problem.

• Fuck those hypocrites at The Black anyway. They’ve make money of hard drug paraphernalia for decades, and now they anoint themselves the arbiters of what constitutes a scourge on the community? The Black and their proprietors are in a glass house throwing stones. Go back to what you do best: selling glass dicks to crackheads and sniff-bullets to tweekers.

• Homeless people are worse then jews and niggers. Kill all of the panhandling fools. [From KKK in San Diego]

• I’m so tired of people taking the side of “humans” that want to be who they are and exactly where there are in life…I live in Hillcrest and I see these young able-bodied bums all around and they do get quite salty with their words. When you CHOOSE to live your life like that then that’s NOT my problem. We teach kids not to demand things from people and we make them say thank you and your welcome…how are this “kids” any difffernt. And it really cracks me up when some people say that we will feed dogs but not humans….well the last time I checked a dog cannot go to school and get an education and make something of themselves so they can get a job and become productive and buy their OWN FOOD! thats the difference! I bet the same people who are on the side of the bums, and yes, that’s what they are, are the same people who are against the illegal immigrants. WHEN are we going to start making everyone in our society accountable for their own actions…next your going to tell me that it’s because they’ve had bad childhoods…wah, wah…stand in line!! PICK YOURSELF UP AND GET A F*%&N JOB. And by the way, I love OB but it does need some cleaning up.

• Hmm how difficult it is to be a bum in San Diego: balmy annual climate, gorgeous public restrooms, beautiful beaches, plenty o’ grub and grog outside of a myriad of diverse restaurants and a liberal population that does nothing to hinder the their daily existence….tax-free, free medical clinics, soup kitchens are also fringe benefits associated with such a ‘job title’…pretty good living by ANY global standard no less much more luxurious a life than those out there protecting our freedom with combat arms! In other parts of the county, bums are ‘checked’ by a natural form of social feedback on a daily basis and usually by those that only ‘eat what they kill’ in the marketplace. Someone walks down my street wearing a backpack or pushing someones stolen personal property (shopping cart) and they’re not looking the part of a someone prepping for a trek in the Tetons or a their cart isn’t full of hard-earned groceries, I harass them or call the police to do my bidding. Is this wrong of me to employ a neighborhood watch style of system for bums? If it seems so I can almost guarantee that you are under 30 years old or have never been exposed to any real violence. For those of you over 30, want to raise your children near these fellows patrolling your neighborhood for garbage and a place to make a fort? Most men would like me would like to know where this fellow is headed since there is no campground within 20 miles of my street. Yes ladies, more often than not, men take it upon themselves to do a families dirty work of protecting their property and although the job is sometimes daunting the job comes with a great deal of pride as ultimately we cannot rely upon anyone to protect ourselves, outr families and our personal property. The police has a job to protect ‘the public’ not Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan’s real name) everytime he has a bum picking the fruit off his trees and urinating on his belived begonia’s.

Unfortunately mental illness runs rampant throughout the bums ranks and this makes them extremely dangerous and unpredictable. If you think tax dollars should be used to help these folks, you are supporting but just one of 100’s of passions that people have and I think the money should be used to rehabilitate wounded combat veterans before anyone else..my passion…everyone has their own so let’s leave the tax dollars out of it.

Bottom line is that coastal San Diego is one of the most expensive places to live in the world and only those that can afford to live here should, that is the law of natural selection in our culture whether you want to believe it or not: pay the freight or ship out. If the limo liberals that live in OB had any intestinal fortitude they would socially’ ‘check’ (as in hockey folks) these bums and tell them to head East where the living is more affordable and the country boys will give these bums a little something more to think about the next time they want to denigrate someone’s personal property. Get tough or just wait and ‘coexist’ until one of these bums harms something close to you. After 60 years of working in more than 25 countries around the world I know first hand that people only respond to one thing-pain! Start doling or start receiving, you might be next?!

• So you don’t agree with Frank and the OBRag tactics of demonizing those who are fed up with the actions of the transient panhandlers in OB, by calling them bigots

• It’s almost as if the license plates are true….”OB…surrounded by reality” So. Out here in reality….Since you’ve apparently not even looked to find out what is going on with this issue, I’ll fill you villagers in. (I hope villager isn’t dehumanizing…jeesh). Is anyone here even aware of the City of San Diego’s current efforts and the proposed plans for a future permanent shelter? I don’t see anyone making any real reports on this…..so allow me to offer some facts.

City Council has begun public outreach to all community groups on the issue over a year ago and will be discussing it further in committee next month. The issue is a priority and has been underway for quite some time. The real issue here is the centralization of homeless services and the creation of a permanent homelessness facility with a full spectrum of services offered.

But thanks for letting people know that the church has a plan for OB. Great….now it is solved. Seeing as how the church is already running a decentralized service by feeding homeless… .they are actually “voting” by actions that they don’t support a centralized program…or they just don’t know or understand how the only effective programs on homelessness are organized. Only centralized services work.

Solution for what though??? How many homeless are really in OB? Has anyone really done a point-in-time count? Besides local business owners and some sticker buyers complaining on a blog….I’m not convinced we have a homelessness problem in OB. And we certainly don’t require services. Providing food and temp shelter only exacerbates your problem of people living on the street and not making choices to change their lives. If you don’t have a full spectrum program with housing, education and focused services…it doesn’t work! And the real problem has been over and over and over with aggressive panhandling and people breaking the current law and behaving badly. Well…..that is a police enforcement issue, and damn right for business owners calling the cops and getting some of these people punished for breaking those rules. If you can’t play with the other kids….you gotta go.

… Shame on you Frank. You are again sensationalizing a NON-issue (like the fire pits) for some other gain than the community. Which isn’t even clear. Why don’t you offer a homeless shelter at YOUR house Frank? Doug? and who else of the other “official bloggers”??? …

BTW….I’m anti-sticker and lived in OB for ten years. Boycott is silly and only serves to make more news for Franks little expirement but thanks to the sticker….you bloggers might actually learn what is going on out here in the real world on this very real issue.

• This could be the most pathetic consumer boycott ever. I imagine June is going to be the best month The Black has had in a long time. You all need to lighten up, it is just a silly sticker and thanks to this blog it is now a silly tee shirt and hat as well. Peace man.

• One more time the (ultra) liberal press creates an issue, puts their own spin on it and then accuse those who disagree with their position as being heartless and uncaring. The real issue here is not OB’s attitude toward the Homeless, but frustration with the ongoing assault on OBecians and citizens by a select group of individuals.

The facts of the situation are as follows:

1. OB has been invaded by a number of young people who feel that the world and citizens of OB owe them and should capitulate to their demands for money, so as to feed their alcohol and drug habits. When begging doesn’t work, coersion and threats take place.

2. For the most part, these holigans have made a conscious decision to live this chosen lifestyle. Don’t confuse them with people who become homeless through no fault of their own.

3. These culprits add zero value to OB and are in fact detrimental; they don’t work, they chase customers away from businesses on Newport Avenue and make it uncomfortable for OBecians and other to walk the streets. They are responsible for a disproportionate use of police and fire services.

4. The 10News poll mentioned above is not a scientific poll and is subject to manipulation. How many of the respondents live and work in OB and are familar with the issue on a first-hand basis? To even mention this poll is blatent irresponsible journalism!

5. What has the OB Rag and Frank Gormlie personally done to resolve this “Homeless Problem”? How many meals or nights of housing have you provided for any of them or assisted them with alcohol or drug rehab programs? Most likely, it’s another repeat of “the man behind the curtain” in the Wizard of Oz (Do as I say, not as I do).

Kudos to The Black for bringing attention to this blight and taking the business risk in addressing it in the way they have. They’re putting their money where their mouth is.

• What a waste of a town. Socialists taking my hard earned money and giving it to lazy bums. I might have to visit The Black. The only place in OB with good sense.

• My husband & I live in LA County, we visit Point Loma often because we have relatives there. We love to walk down to Ocean Beach, it is so beautiful and peaceful. The only thing that spoils the visit is the vagrants that are sitting or laying on the sidewalks (some on drugs or drunk) and begging for money. I read an article in the LA Times on the 4th of July about this problem. They talk about the bumper sticker “don’t feed our bums” and printed comments only from the people who sympathize with the bums. The fact that the bumper stickers are selling so fast that they can’t keep them on the shelves says a lot. One person’s comment said the bumper stickers “dehumanize” the transients. I say ” it is what it is”, they dehumanize themselves by urinating, defecating & trashing the streets. The sympathizers, in my opinion, are narrow minded and detached from reality. Instead of feeling sorry for the non-working transients, why not side with the people who own businesses and homes in OB, or the people who have to clean up after the bums or the visitors who are turned off with having to step around them and being harrassed for money. OB is a friendly, beautiful community with a unique layed-back charm that is appealing but with everything else in life there has to be a line drawn to preserve that charm. This town could be so much more if basic civilized rules were inforced

• The average homeless drug addict cherishes what little money they have. Let’s say some guy has $20 or $25, whatever it costs to score some meth. They might be hungry but if they buy breakfast at the Jack in the Box, they’ll be short. Alas the church! Of course! Free lunch there. Finacial problem solved. The church has therefore enabled them. Why don’t the churches and other organizations have the homeless submit a urine sample and screen out the tweakers and the crackheads who are causing all the problems. They could also have them blow into a breathelizer so they can screen out the drunks who have to have a 24 oz St Ides first thing in the morning.

• I’m going to offer my perspective from someone who was 1) in attendance [at the community forum] who participated in a group and 2) still not thoroughly convinced that the entire spectacle requires our attention except to further some other agenda that hasn’t been disclosed. Punchline for all of those who didn’t go to the meeting: THE CHURCHES AND THE PEOPLE WHO BLOG HERE SUPPORT A HOMELESS FACILITY IN OCEAN BEACH. Presumably paid for by the taxes of the rest of us.

Some facts from my group and perspective as a more moderate participant:

– There were more like 120-150 people (MINUS the 50-100 not invited media who were indeed allowed to be there even though it was advertised differently) anyone who can count can see that. 13 rows of chairs at 6 deep on either side with a handful of people standing in the back. C’mon Frank…even your colleagues got this right. Your sensationalism never ends.

– The discussion was hosted by the churches — THEY HAVE THEIR OWN AGENDA and it doesn’t represent the majority of the some odd 25,000 people who live in OB. Hey OBceans… Christians are trying to get to heaven and the only way they can feel good about it is if they are doing “God’s” work in YOUR backyard. Not theirs!!!

– No facts were presented in the meeting….we went straight into the discussions. It is almost presumed by the Churches and the Bloggers that we have a legitimate problem with homelessness. I don’t agree with the “official” number of 50. That is bunk.

– The lady named Lupe who feeds homeless on Mondays sat in the group across from us. She  said that we have to feed homeless people because (sic) Jesus told us so, Amen. She doesn’t live in OB.

The meeting was a little clumsy and somewhat frustrating because it was clear to me that the people in my group were literally comprised of less than half that actually lived in OB. I listened with a grain of salt and bitterness as they began to write checks with my tax money that should be working on a new park or better roads or services.

I believe in democracy and open forum….but I don’t believe in representation without TAXATION. If you aren’t contributing to the community on a level comensurate with your ability to provide service, then you shouldn’t be taking advantage of the same level of public services that the rest of us provide with our tax dollars. If the church wants to feed the homeless with all of their money….great. I don’t, and my guess is that the other 25,000 something people of OB who didn’t bother to come out last night won’t support it either.

In the end….I reviewed ALL of the comments. None of them were earthshattering or even worth further consideration.  Keep OB Safe, Clean and keep Drugs off the Street…..these are ALL social ilk associated with MORE homeless people and (to be fair) just more people in OB. Guess what baby boomers….. we aren’t living in 1965 when you bought your quaint little beach cottage. YOUR OB has doubled in size due to run-away development for several decades. No…..smart people in OB DON’T want more public services….these are just locations for more homeless to use for free (see comments above from the non-taxpaying homeless in my group). These SEEM like a good idea until they are instantly trashed by people and then nobody in their right mind (unless you are desparate) will use them. You will just walk home to go to the bathroom or shower. No…surfers you don’t get free water from my tax money. Sorry….you chose to get sandy and salty.

The people of OB should watch out. Your best interest was not represented last night. The Churches are not looking out for you, they want to get to heaven and the only way they can do that is to continue subsidizing homelessness in your community without providing any real solutions for getting people off the street. Their end is met the second they give that man(person) a fish for a meal. Strangely….their biggest teacher discussed teaching men to fish for themselves and to also be fishers of men. Not subsidizers of people who clearly choose to not participate in society the way we have arranged it. I don’t interpret the bible in a manner similar to these kooks. Is it humane to give a drug addict a dollar knowing that it is going right towards getting more drugs. How can you discriminate homeless from drug addict? You don’t…you let professionals do that work and you let cops enforce the law.

I can now see that the Church and “good samaritans” are providing meals at least THREE times a week in OB. That means that if you don’t mind sleeping in a bush and only fending for yourself half the time….you are SET in OB…..never mind the FEAST that the Rock Church with the Charger’s Football money provides on occasion at the beach as well.

Thanks for uncovering the real agenda of the Rag and the Church last night Frank. Now the rest of us know where your little spectacle is going and we know where to organize the real resistance. We don’t want more services or a homeless shelter in OB. Stop the spectacle now… and quit picking fights in order to get on TV. Nobody’s Civil Rights have been violated in OB!