Dear The Martial list I for one have been homeless before and living on the street is cold and ugly. Most homeless people that I have met here in Miami were not cut throats. You have a better chance of being mugged by a thug than the average homeless person. I for one am greatful that time has passed.
As I too have experienced FIRST HAND the life of the homeless for several years I have to say your expose' Phil, is nothing more than an angry, frustrated rant against people whom you resent because they've nothing better to do than to accost people who are more fortunate than they are.
This quote from the article is inaccurate.
Let’s be clear on something from the outset, too. Our popular entertainment media love to push the mythology of the down-on-his-luck average homeless Joe, somebody to whom fate has simply been cruel and who, through no fault
of his own, finds himself penniless. As we learned in the preceding section, that’s a load of crap. Most people who are homeless are homeless because they have mental or substance abuse issues.
The media also love to spread the myth of the homeless family — a poor, noble underclass eking out an existence under our overpasses and on our subway grates, desperate to make it in a cold and uncaring world. This is ridiculous and not at all borne out by the demographics of homelessness in the United States.
While the media does romanticize the homeless and the down and outs... it's not a myth. I myself have had to experience misfortune (true, most by my own making) and destitute poverty and had to "live off the government's tit" as Lt. Dan would be fond of saying.
But it's a scenario that does exist. Not all homeless are drug addled monsters waiting for the unwary victim to pounce upon and rob them of their money and life.
Many of them do have drug, alcohol problems yes. It would seem that many would prefer to stay in that miserable state and thus go the easy route and panhandle for sometimes pennies on a daily basis to get their next round of drugs and booze, rather find a full time job, there are many who go to the daily labor employment offices to work a full day doing the jobs that nobody else wants to to and earn a meager pay from modern day Fagins and get their nightly fix of drugs/booze and FOOD. It's the best they can do. If they can earn a couple of bucks on the side asking people for a hand out then hey, it's two dollars less they have to worry about.
But the chances are that you'll be attacked by one of them who OPENLY approaches you and asks as politely as they know how to is minimal.
The mentally ill ones? Well gee, those poor bastards have it worse. Not only do they got the day to day struggle of surviving on the streets but they got their own inner demons to deal with as well.
Most of these people come out of abusive homes, war veterans, or those who's state welfare funds have run out to the point they cannot afford their meds anymore. They are probably very unaware of their appearance and bodily odors. If they were in the right mind they'd care and probably try to find a place to get clean clothes and a bath. But they're not.
Am I asking you to pity them... to an extent yes. Pity them that folks like you don't petition the government to help them more. Instead folks like you want to call them garbage, human refuse, or as they called them in Demolition Man "Scraps", you want to berate them and hate them and be angry with them. Pity, pity for you Phil.
I'm not in that world anymore of the homeless, but I remind myself that everyday that could change. It could change for any one of us.
Jesus said: "The poor will be with you always..." he was right. So long as dead or dying multi-millionaires prefer to give to their own via colleges and private medical centers (who would turn away a homeless person because they've no insurance). So long as the government spends money on a war that is becoming increasingly unpopular by the week instead of finding a solution to help it's poor and tired and huddled masses...
There will be poor. There will be homelessness, there will be the mentally insane who can't get the help they need because everyone is too busy turning them away as they walk into the stores for their own subtenancies.
I get approached by homeless people alot. My state of awareness is the same as it is with the nicely dressed guy asking me for a light. Using the Homeland Security color code, I give these homeless folks a yellow... the nicely dressed guy asking for a light... yellow. The only time it escalates to a "orange" level is when they become argumentative at my inability (not always refusal) to help.
If I got a couple of bucks that I know I'll probably blow somewhere else ... I'll give it to them. Because dammit, sometimes they
are just looking to get a burger at McDonalds or Burger King... just like I really was when I was "down there".
Ever go
really hungry Phil? Ever go really hungry and not have a dollar to buy that .99 cent burger? Try that for a few days in a row. Then deny someone the next time they ask.
Sorry Phil, I normally like you and your articles... but this one... well... it just pissed me off with your anger and blind hatred.
