The Homeless

Spring 2008

It never ceases to amaze me how callous and heartless people can be towards those who they see as worthless and society's outcasts. But for the grace of God, they would be in their shoes.

There are people, from the sanctuary of their full kitchens and stocked pantries, from the warmth of their beds and well-insulated homes who, filled with the smug, sanctimonious stench of self-satisfaction, intone: "Homeless people choose to be homeless. They want no responsibility and think they're living totally free. They choose to live that way."

Bullshit. You think a person functioning in their right mind actually would want to live this way? Dressed in the same filthy clothes day after day, scrounging from dumpsters for food and other necessities, harassed by police and strangers. You try pushing all your worldly belongings around in a shopping cart or carrying them on your back with a sleep roll everywhere you go because obviously, you have no place to store or keep them. It's like camping out? Yeah, it's all fun and games when you don't have a place to lay your head and you sleep whenever and wherever you can find a safe spot. And even then, you don't really sleep because you're in constant worry that you'll get rolled, attacked, have your shit stolen, or get your fucking throat slit by some other crazy wacko.

Yeah, that sure sounds like fucking blissful carefree hippie hoboistic lifestyle living to me.

I don't deny for a second that drug addiction, alcoholism and mental issues are a huge part of the problem of being homeless. I will readily agree that most people who find themselves in that position played a pretty good role in putting themselves there. But let's not kid ourselves and think that there's really that much difference between people who live in attractive houses in upscale neighborhoods who are slowly killing themselves with destructive lifestyles and the skid-row derelict. The bum in the army fatigues just happens to be poor, that's all. The upscale guy is in a better position, so he can get away with it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that drugs and booze can bring a person at the top of the food chain to their knees just as devastatingly as someone on the bottom. Some of the people at the so-called bottom were once up there themselves.

Next, another canard: "I am hard working and if everyone worked hard like me, there would be no homelessness. I don't feel any sympathy for their plight."

I know a lot of people who are successful who do indeed work hard and have a conscientious, diligent work ethic. And I happen to know a lot of people who have all the material prerequisites, but in fact, they don't do shit. These are people whose parents have money and they mooch off of them, or they have some cushy job that was just handed to them. It goes both ways: there are people who are decent, hard-working individuals who would give you the shirt off their backs who happen to be on the streets. And there are lazy fuckheads who can't really be reached; they would squander every cent they had if they were given a million-dollar check. It's the combination of hard work and getting yourself in a good position to take advantage of an opportunity plus being in the right place at the right time that makes the difference.

It should not be our mission to save everyone, because only those who want help can be helped. It is, however, our responsibility to do our part to help make this world a better place. That means getting off of our asses and high horses to think about what some people go through every day in order to survive while we live in a comparative fantasyland Shangri-La. The Phil Collins hit from 1989, "Another Day In Paradise", comes to mind.

The problem in this fucked-up society we live in is that the smartest, most persevering people of strength and character often have unrealized potential and thus do not reap their just rewards. This is a society where he who dies with the most toys wins. This is a selfish, me-oriented society where people with a materialistic and superficial-centric mindset most often come out on top. Empathy is damn near nonexistent, except in cases where it's directly impacting your life.

Other than that, we sit in our nice little air-conditioned and heated fucking cocoons, sip our lattes and type mindless shit on our funky little laptops, drive our SUV's with oversized plastic shells to a place where we spend eight to five like mice on a goddamn treadmill. God forbid we actually are forced to think outside our nice little convenient lives of plasticity and think outside the box. Naw, that's too fuckin' hard. Or think about the possibility to being in places most of us can't comprehend or relate to and spend most of our waking hours working in order to be as far away from the threat of those places as possible.

Four or five years ago, I was one of those people that we love to ridicule and taunt as we're driving by seeing them hold up a cardboard sign. That we love to curse as we see them hanging out next to some store where we're going to go buy some more shit. The people that we love to crush under our feet and love to hate. I was one of those people that when you see me coming, you cross the street. You probably saw me pushing all my shit down the street on a cart. You probably either ignored me or laughed and kept driving. Yeah, I was one of those fuckin' people that you despise and try to keep away from. I don't bring this up a whole lot, and I don't like talking about it to too many people. About ten years ago, shortly after leaving the military, I was homeless, and a few years ago I was in that same spot. I was lucky enough to get my shit together, go back to school and get my degree, and find gainful employment in a career (stop laughing) that I'm still at today. No, I'm not wealthy or filthy rich. I don't have a lot of the outward signs of opulence. Considering where I've been, however, I still consider myself blessed beyond belief.

I'm not any smarter or better than anyone else. I just happened to be fortunate to (A) have a family that supported me through my trials and tribulations and (B) have some shit go my way for a change. It doesn't take much in this day and age to lose your job. Once you get sucked down into the pattern of destitution, it takes more energy just to tread water in one place than just living a "normal" life. Trust me, I know.

I've been there.