The only justification for ever looking down on somebody is to pick them up. — Jesse Jackson
CHARLES MANSON and Richard Ramirez were homeless. John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer were not. Penn Jillette was homeless for two years by choice, living a transient lifestyle as a street performer. Sylvester Stallone was homeless when he wrote, sold and starred in Rocky. The author of the very literate, highly entertaining, sophisticated and eloquent column you are now reading is homeless. It seems you can never tell.
I have never blamed the world for my situation. Neither do I blame myself. Blame implies wrongdoing, and there is nothing inherently wrong about homelessness. It’s just a condition of being. Luck of the draw. The way it is. It can be debilitating or motivating, permanent or transitory.
Homelessness is not a character trait. It is not necessarily the result of laziness, substance abuse, mental illness or poor choices. These are an unwarranted judgments. There are plenty of indolent stoners with mental issues and poorly managed lives who are securely housed. I can introduce you to several. Why does the public feel justified in passing judgment on homeless persons anyway?
I’m more concerned with how a person is homeless rather than why. Do they steal or harm others? Are they loud and messy and under the influence? Do they give the homeless a bad name? Many of us, the ones with a modicum of sense, strive to be unobtrusive. The homeless persons one sees begging for change, living in cars full of garbage with trash bags in place of missing windows, unconscious in shrubbery, or staggering under the influence dominate public perception, but they are not the definitive examples.
Jim, a fellow I met in a local cemetery, told me, “People think I’m a bum. @#$% them! They don’t know %$#@ about me. They don’t care, either. Once they realize I’m homeless, that’s enough, their minds are made up.”
The conversation started when I offered him a chicken drumstick from my lunch. He was offended initially, but we got to talking. “I appreciate it,” he said, “but I’m good. I’m on my way to work in a minute.” He’s employed at a nearby pizza place and has a slot at a working-man’s shelter.
Harvey, an itinerant construction worker I encounter seasonally, travels with the weather and sleeps under a camper shell on his Chevy pickup truck with Ace, his black lab. He’s a pot smoker, but it doesn’t appear to affect his energy level or work ethic.
Skinner moves around the National Forest in a van, relocating every 14 days or so to stay ahead of dispersed-camping laws. I sometimes see him at the park when he comes to town. He collects Social Security and plays James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Cat Stevens and Gordon Lightfoot songs on guitar (which makes me a fan) for no audience (which makes me a bigger fan). Chancing to overhear him play is an unexpected joy.
There was a young guy living in a tent in an undeveloped City-owned field. He attended college within walking distance, and I’d see him some mornings buying gas-station coffee and a donut. He was camped in that location for more than a year that I know of, till some concerned citizen called upon the PD to do a ‘wellness check,’ at which time he was driven off and his campsite razed. I don’t know how he ended up in that tent, or whether he was contented where he was, or where he went from there. It never occurred to me to judge him. We never spoke and I never knew his name or much of anything about him, except his behavior was retiring and inoffensive. I do know that to this day that field remains undeveloped.
While I can’t say what percentage of the homeless these individuals represent, they should serve to repudiate the blanket judgment and condemnation to some degree. Point-in-Time reports that approximately .23% of Americans are homeless. Given a population of 340,000,000, that’s a relatively small number. If the ‘greatest country in the world,’ which specifically claims to welcome the homeless on a plaque on Liberty Island, was more concerned with serving her citizens than arbitrarily judging them, homelessness would be a very different issue.
If our energies and tax dollars were spent on improving the lot of the least among us instead of hypocritical anniversary celebrations and building ballrooms, the issue would be well under control.
