The vision of the anointed: the left and social policy

National Review, July 31, 1995 by Thomas Sowell

A mascot's own well-being is not so crucial as its role in enabling others to ``make a statement.'' Many social groups are treated as the human mascots of the anointed, whether or not that ultimately works out to the benefit of those groups themselves. A TEXTBOOK example of someone with anti-social behavior who was turned into a mascot is Richard F.

Kreimer. During the late 1980s, a number of homeless people began coming into the library in Morristown, New Jersey, disturbing both the other library users and the staff by their behavior and their body odors. Kreimer in particular often exhibited offensive and disruptive behavior, including talking loudly to himself and to others; on at least one occasion, he was so belligerent toward a librarian as to cause her to call the police. On May 16, 1989, a notice was posted, limiting the use of the library to persons ``engaged in normal activities associated with the use of a public library'' and specifically banning people who ``annoy others'' and whose ``personal hygiene'' was not acceptable. This policy was challenged in court by Kreimer, with the aid of the ACLU and others who literally made this a federal case. Federal District Court Judge H. Lee Sarokin ruled in favor of Kreimer. Declaring the library to be a ``public forum,'' defined as ``an available public space where citizens communicate their ideas through the spoken word,'' Judge Sarokin declared it covered by the First Amendment. Moreover, a hygiene test has ``a disparate impact on the poor.'' In short, the library rules ``unreasonably frustrate, infringe, or obstruct the expressional and associational rights of individuals.'' In a classic expression of the vision of the anointed, Judge Sarokin lectured the community on its attitude toward the homeless: ``If we wish to shield our eyes and noses from the homeless, we should revoke their conditions, not their library cards.'' In other words, it is society's fault that people end up like Richard Kreimer -- and it is within society's capability to change their conditions. In reality, Kreimer was born into a middle-class family and inherited with his brother an estate worth $340,000. How society was supposed to prevent Kreimer -- an able-bodied white male -- from becoming a bum was unspecified. Just as Kreimer was treated as a mascot, so the other library users were treated as expendable, and the law-abiding and tax-paying citizens of the town were treated as targets. In addition to having to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars defending against a lawsuit, the town ultimately settled out of court, paying Kreimer $150,000, in order to prevent its policemen's homes from being in jeopardy of being taken away from them to satisfy an adverse court judgment. Here, as elsewhere, the anointed show what Jean-Francois Revel has called ``a pitiless ferocity toward some'' and ``a boundless indulgence toward others.'' Many of the ``homeless'' are mentally ill people whom the anointed have made it increasingly difficult to confine to mental institutions. Those who are sleeping on the streets on bitterly cold winter nights are as much mascots as Richard Kreimer. In both cases, they enable the anointed to score points against a benighted society, whether or not this proves ultimately to be a benefit to the mascots themselves.