Editor:

I am a longtime resident of Eureka now living in Burnt Ranch. Our communities' responses to people who are homeless and the increasing numbers of people living in poverty in a malignant capitalist society reveal a wide gap in our values ("Top 10 Stories of 2013," Dec. 26). I think this gap parallels the 99 percent/1 percent scenario so clearly identified by the Occupy movement.

On the one hand there is narcissist pimp-who-would-be-king Arkley and his "kill the homeless" town hall meeting that promoted the fiction that we have homeless people here because of the lavish handouts we provide to those who just enjoy living under bridges when it's damp and below freezing outside.

On the other hand there is the Betty Chinn Center which addresses the fact that there are people who, for a variety of reasons, are not able to prosper under an economic system which, now to an extreme degree, benefits the minority at the expense of the majority. The Center first offers respite from the weather and chronic illnesses and then provides services which can help many to help themselves to a more productive and self-sustaining life.

I am an atheist but one might ask the "conservatives," many of whom claim to be "Christian," what would Jesus do?

Robert C. Van Fleet, Burnt Ranch