Just Another Issue

MrMoe

I know right now you are sitting behind a computer, so you would be considered (at least by me and millions of others world over) to be... well... lucky. Here is where you react with your personal problems which are rather petty (sorry not trying to be rude here) life situations that amount to a hill of beans, barring extreme life circumstances, compared to say, that one guy who wears rags and talks to himself on the corner of Main and Broadway. Huh? You know who I am talking about, that creepy homeless guy (or so you say to yourself as you remember to lock your door while sitting at the red light.) Behavior such as his would qualify about 100 years ago for a good old fashioned exorcism, a scalding bath with lye soap, and some fresh clothes. Now I dare you to imagine 2 days in the middle of a harsh winter in this man's shoes.

I have heard from some that the homeless are homeless by choice. Perhaps it could be said that some are put in their situation as a direct result of poor life style choices such as drug or alcohol abuse, but let's face it, most have serious underlying mental issues. Ever think of the life that that person lived? Maybe if you went through and saw all that they had or rather lack thereof, possible abuse, likely poor aptitude for learning or disabilities, and the like... you would may likely abuse drugs or alcohol as an outlet as well.

The vast majority of the homeless within the US are undereducated and mentally unstable. Let's face it, most mentally stable people are not crack addicts selling their bodies for the next fix. You can argue about some who have been able to turn their lives around and rise above it, but let's be real here. This is the exception, not the rule. Not everybody was born with a bright mind, nerves of steel, and determination to be a success.

Perhaps the homeless situation cannot be eradicated, but I think much can be prevented and many individuals can assisted though education and rehabilitation to be a contributing part of society. There is no excuse for half of what occurs in the United States... we are the USA for heaven's sake! And yet, there are areas here in the States that mirror a third world country.

*end rant*

JH

Even a Super Power like the USA will have it's poor and homeless. Here are a few statistics on this:

http://www.helpusa.org/statistics/

Englishman

Moe,

A few years back I read a novel by John Grisham called The Street Lawyer. It deal with homelessness in the States and how people got caught up in a poverty trap just as can happen to people here too.

I can't imagine what it's like to have nowhere to lay your head at night, it must be terrifying.

Englishman.

worldlygirl

Ever been to Washington DC? There are more homeless there than anywhere I have visited, and I am pretty well-traveled. Some of them I feel sorry for, but some are just downright mean. I visit there frequently for the museums, etc. and I swear there are many that I recognize as always pan-handling in the same exact spot every time I see them. You have to wonder if they aren't just a special kind of entrepreneur preying on the people who take pity on them. In fact, the last time I was in DC, I gave a guy $1.00 and he screamed at me, "Hey, you white b*tch, I know you got more than that!!!" I really just don't know how to feel . . . I want to be compassionate, but people like that make it so hard!!!

MrMoe

You know, I don't blame them for being mad. I would be too if my mental capcity was somewhere in outer space, I had addiction issues, I had no education, my parents beat me, and I had been living on the streets for 5 years... and then some well off person tossed me 50 cents. Wow, whoopie, thanks, how generous of you. It is SO EASY to judge, isn't it?

Washinton, yes, I have been. Lots of money there, and also very expensive to live. Now imagine having no friends, no family, lose your job, can't pay the rent, then what? Where do you go? Try to find a job living on the streets? No address on your resume, and how do you shower for an interview? Maybe before all of this you had a problems with a little drugs or whatever here and there (common in the US, let alone DC, can you say Coke?) Next thing you know, you are just like the rest of them. It could happen, and it does. Over time, a person like that just gets sucked in, part of the scene. I seriously doubt they say one day I THINK I WANT TO BE A HOMELESS BUM!

FYI - Not all panhandlers are homeless, some do it for a "living."

Lady Lee

Excellent post Moe I agree with you 150%

A few years ago here in Canada and I believe in the US there was a whole movement to deinstitutionalize people with mental health issues. There was no safety net for them. No where to go. No training in self care, paying the bills, using a bank and other services. Some of these people had never had to do that before. When they couldn't pay the bills they lost the place to live and wound up on the street. Homeless shelters were overwhelmed with the numbers of people they were expected to house and fee.

The shelter here in Winnipeg has about 90% of residents who have metal health issues. They cannot manage on their own and only a small percent of them are drug users.

Worldlygirl

I would have been pretty nervous with that guy.

D wiltshire

Moe,

Your humanity it very touching, and your sympathy admirable.

I feel we all need to show more compassion, and try not to judge those less fortunate then oursleves too harshly. While we may be limited as to what we can do, lets keep on trying to do what we can to eliminate or ease the suferring of our fellow man. Jesus when on this earth not only healed the afflicted but gave money to the poor.

MrMoe

To feel bad for people who suffer is not admirable, it's human.

embalmed

I became friends with a homeless woman once. Her life was just so horrible as a child and now she has to live on the street with her two little girls cuz her childhood screwed up her life so badly. It makes me cry sometimes when I think about her and other homeless people in situations like that and that I can't do anything to help them.

Francois

These people may never have said, "One day I want to be a homeless person," but I suspect that these people are where they are today due to a series of bad decisions made by them over the years. The cumulative effect of these decisions is as you describe it.

In addition, during the administration of Jimmy Carter, it was decided that keeping the marginally mentally ill in treatment centers violated their civil and human rights. So Carter decreed they be released. And many, many of them continue to live on the streets.

I don't think there are any simple answers to this problem. I've heard it said so many times that "you can't solve a money problem with money," and I believe this to be the burden of this thread. Sure seems like it to me. I personally feel that absent a unified approach across the states, administered by professionals in the field, we will make little progress with this problem.

In Atlanta a few years ago, a study done by Georgia State University social science students, disclosed that most of the squeegie men, and the "I will work for food" guys were taking an average of two hundred dollars a day from passers-by. That's better than any social program is going to provide.

It's a Hobson's Choice anyway you look at it.

Just Another Issue

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