Do you ever feel like you don't exist? Like you don't matter? It hurts, doesn't it? Today, I share my thoughts from a few recent trips I took and an event that happened. As I traipsed the city of Minneapolis a few weeks ago, going out to different parts, exploring as I often do, the scooter my best friend, I realized how the United States has failed and continues to fail on the issue of homelessness. Some cities seem to hide it better than others, painting a false perception with a simple police baton, or some, like Portland, go in the opposite direction, even embracing it as a separate subculture. It's no secret we have a serious issue here, so I won't bore you on what we already know. That we need change. That we need more social programs. That we need governments who make it a priority. That we NEED. But in NYC a couple weeks ago, the problem was even more prominent. And I still wake up some nights with that sinking feeling that we must to do better. In a park one morning, sipping my too-expensive coffee, I noticed a cluster of people surrounding somebody. Of course, I tried not to stare, and of course, curiosity got the better of me. How appropriate as it centered around a cat. A woman sat with her cat curled in her lap on a hot and smoggy day, and people gathered to give her some money, some lingering, some simply dropping coins in a can by the sign that read: Please help me feed my cat. After a couple days in the city, you become a bit desensitized to homelessness. The first day, you find yourself giving money, smiling, doing anything to try to be...well...human. And as time goes by, you just don't know what to do. I'm not proud of this. I'm just being completely honest. We start to ignore it. We stop making eye contact. We have little voices inside our heads that say --"What will they do with the money?"--or "Jesus, not again?" As more time goes on, you just ignore it. We walk by. We try to pretend we didn't see. But we see it, damn it. And we can say or hear or make every excuse in the book, but we are suddenly looking at the homeless as a thing and not a person. As a problem and not a worthy living individual. As if this PERSON doesn't even exist. Why? How does that happen? But this woman wasn't being ignored. Instead, people cared. They cared, not about her, but about her cat. That was the sticking point. I heard murmurs: 'OMG. That poor cat.' And yup, stupid me, I started to cry. Maybe I was exhausted. Maybe I was hormonal. But the point is, no one cared about her. She wasn't important. But her cat? Her cat was important.
And the hardest part of all this reflection is that while food and hunger and shelter and all that is vital, it's the emotional part that keeps us living. I know. I have a dog that wasn't supposed to live through a week and with love and care, is going on 14! And I also know first-hand what being ignored feels like. It's awful. It kills self esteem. It can make us have moments of the darkness of feelings, of self-loathing. Imagine that feeling every day? Now imagine that feeling times 50 or 100 or 1000. Imagine being ignored by EVERYONE. Every. Single. Day. Yes, America. We MUST to do better.
2 Comments
Mark A Morris
7/25/2019 15:05:46
In the city nearest me, it's a common thing to erect spikes on rooftops and ledges to prevent birds from roosting and nesting there. I can see the reasoning behind it; town planners prefer it if the birds go elsewhere, taking their 'mess' somewhere else. This year the same kind of thing's happening there with wire fences being erected to fence away the corners where the homeless sleep, the idea being the same, treating them like vermin. In other places I've seen spiked plates being used, preventing them from even lying down, forcing them to move on. I guess it's cheaper than paying policemen's salaries, since they're being made redundant too, but it just shows how heartless and cruel our communities' planners are becoming. It's a sign of hard times in a heartless world where human empathy's been replaced by profit forecastings and balance sheets.
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Josette
7/25/2019 15:08:43
I read your blog with tears in my eyes. I am from New Mexico and I see this problem all around. It seems as if everything we try to do is just a drop in this big old ocean. I see the homeless people and I can't even began to imagine what goes through their minds each and every day. As you say they are being ignored. I guess what also bothers me is that with all the issues being discussed, no one wants to address homelessness. We need to start being human again. Thank you, Josette
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