Some time ago, I saw a homeless man on the side of the road holding his cardboard sign. Being hardened to that scene as repeated so much in the city, I asked God, "What about these guys, how do you see them?" And I drove on. On the way home from work, months, maybe a year or so later, I saw one particular man on the street corner, so drunk he could barely stand and trying to put his cardboard sign in his backpack. Something came over me that I could not understand. I began to sob uncontrollably, which is just not my style. "Dear God! What is going on here?" Just as clear as someone standing beside me, I heard, "You asked to know how I see these guys. Now you know."
Having seen good times but also some real hard times I know what it is like to feel like you are at the bottom of the barrel. That said I have never been homeless or had to beg to just get by. There are those who really do have to. Most are scammers or addicts of one sort or another. I had a man who worked for me when I first took over the plant in Hickory and he started to have an attendance problem. I figured from experience over the years it was probably drugs. I finally fired him after he missed too many days and when I did he admitted he was having a problem with crack cocaine. I wished him the best and we recommended a program he could go through.
He actually went into the program with our insurance company covering the cost and he never carried through with it.Several months later I went to a local pub after work and the man was sitting on a bench bumming money from people passing by. When he spoke to me I responded to him by name but he was confused and did not know me even though eh had worked for me for almost a year. He said he was just hungry so I said I was headed in to grab a bite and a beer so I would buy him a sandwich if he wanted to come in. he got agitated and said he just needed some money and would eat later. I wished him the best and left him sitting there. I have enough demons of my own to deal with in my life. I will not accept responsibility for or feed other people's demons.
I've been homeless. My mother put me on the street at 17 with about an hour's notice. If I'd come home a couple of hours later I wouldn't have gotten that - I'd have found my stuff on the back porch of an empty, locked house.
In hindsight, it may have been the best thing she ever did for me -- but that's another matter...
*MOST* of those we call "homeless" are in fact severely mentally ill. As a comedian I once saw put it:
"We call them 'homeless' as if we just got them a HOME everything would be OK! IT WOULDN'T!
What they are is alcoholics, addicts and schizophrenics -- and if you gave them a house they'd still be wandering the streets, talking to themselves and shitting in the corner!"
My mother worked in "mental health" for ~30 years, at the local "state hospital." This was a HUGE facility that has - since the '80s - been ~90% empty. Where did all those people go? Most of them are on the streets -- "homeless."
IN the '80s there were numerous "exposes" showing the horrors of our "mental hospitals" -- and some of them WERE truly horrid. People were kept in constant restraints, drugged to insensibility, basically just WAREHOUSED. It was not uncommon for a single "episode" to lead to a lifetime in one of those places, doing "the thorazine shuffle."
I won't -- CAN'T -- argue against the fact that "something needed to be done", but that "something" didn't need to be turning them all out onto the street!
OTOH, these people are as entitled to LIBERTY as the rest of us!!
If they WANT to live their lives as they do - drunk/drugged/hallucinating/WHATEVER - I'm not convinced that we have the RIGHT to *FORCE* them onto medication or into any "treatment" of any kind!!
The sad fact is that there just aren't any good answers.
If you give them money, most will spend it on booze or drugs and not food. That's no solution.
IMHO, this is just another example of what happens when the Fed.gov gets involved in a situation -- they make it worse instead of better.
It seems that I have seen more people on the side of the road with signs than I have ever seen before. I wonder just how close I am to that! If you get a job today its like winning the lottery! I just think what we need is hope.
Some time ago, I saw a homeless man on the side of the road holding his cardboard sign. Being hardened to that scene as repeated so much in the city, I asked God, "What about these guys, how do you see them?" And I drove on.
ReplyDeleteOn the way home from work, months, maybe a year or so later, I saw one particular man on the street corner, so drunk he could barely stand and trying to put his cardboard sign in his backpack. Something came over me that I could not understand. I began to sob uncontrollably, which is just not my style. "Dear God! What is going on here?" Just as clear as someone standing beside me, I heard, "You asked to know how I see these guys. Now you know."
Thanks Brock
What a revelation! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen good times but also some real hard times I know what it is like to feel like you are at the bottom of the barrel. That said I have never been homeless or had to beg to just get by. There are those who really do have to. Most are scammers or addicts of one sort or another. I had a man who worked for me when I first took over the plant in Hickory and he started to have an attendance problem. I figured from experience over the years it was probably drugs. I finally fired him after he missed too many days and when I did he admitted he was having a problem with crack cocaine. I wished him the best and we recommended a program he could go through.
ReplyDeleteHe actually went into the program with our insurance company covering the cost and he never carried through with it.Several months later I went to a local pub after work and the man was sitting on a bench bumming money from people passing by. When he spoke to me I responded to him by name but he was confused and did not know me even though eh had worked for me for almost a year. He said he was just hungry so I said I was headed in to grab a bite and a beer so I would buy him a sandwich if he wanted to come in. he got agitated and said he just needed some money and would eat later. I wished him the best and left him sitting there. I have enough demons of my own to deal with in my life. I will not accept responsibility for or feed other people's demons.
Damn I did like that song though...
Damn good.
ReplyDeleteTrue mental illness is devastating, for all involved, sometimes more so for the caregivers than the afflicted.
ReplyDeleteNice Brock.
I've been homeless. My mother put me on the street at 17 with about an hour's notice. If I'd come home a couple of hours later I wouldn't have gotten that - I'd have found my stuff on the back porch of an empty, locked house.
ReplyDeleteIn hindsight, it may have been the best thing she ever did for me -- but that's another matter...
*MOST* of those we call "homeless" are in fact severely mentally ill. As a comedian I once saw put it:
"We call them 'homeless' as if we just got them a HOME everything would be OK! IT WOULDN'T!
What they are is alcoholics, addicts and schizophrenics -- and if you gave them a house they'd still be wandering the streets, talking to themselves and shitting in the corner!"
My mother worked in "mental health" for ~30 years, at the local "state hospital." This was a HUGE facility that has - since the '80s - been ~90% empty. Where did all those people go? Most of them are on the streets -- "homeless."
IN the '80s there were numerous "exposes" showing the horrors of our "mental hospitals" -- and some of them WERE truly horrid. People were kept in constant restraints, drugged to insensibility, basically just WAREHOUSED. It was not uncommon for a single "episode" to lead to a lifetime in one of those places, doing "the thorazine shuffle."
I won't -- CAN'T -- argue against the fact that "something needed to be done", but that "something" didn't need to be turning them all out onto the street!
OTOH, these people are as entitled to LIBERTY as the rest of us!!
If they WANT to live their lives as they do - drunk/drugged/hallucinating/WHATEVER - I'm not convinced that we have the RIGHT to *FORCE* them onto medication or into any "treatment" of any kind!!
The sad fact is that there just aren't any good answers.
If you give them money, most will spend it on booze or drugs and not food. That's no solution.
IMHO, this is just another example of what happens when the Fed.gov gets involved in a situation -- they make it worse instead of better.
God help us...
OTOH, these people are as entitled to LIBERTY as the rest of us!!
ReplyDeleteStrange that in Communist Vietnam, as it was before '75, the people are not bothered are taken in by the state. They wander as they seem fit.
It seems that I have seen more people on the side of the road with signs than I have ever seen before. I wonder just how close I am to that! If you get a job today its like winning the lottery! I just think what we need is hope.
ReplyDeleteHope n' change!:)
ReplyDelete