But the friends of homelessness all assure me that the homeless are all good people who have had bad things happen to them. It's not their fault when the shoot up and leave the used syringe in the playground. It's not their fault when they break into people's houses to support their drinking and drug habits. It's certainly not their fault when the endanger people by driving like a mad man. That's all somehow our fault for not being nice enough to them.

Of course, the neighbors of mine who have gone out of their way to be nice to our local bums have all suffered at the hands of those same bums.