Great post. I have been living in my current area for 18 months. I have a homeless story I will share. The area I lived in previously (georgia) there were tons of homeless people.
Here, I simply haven't been here long enough to know for certain. However, there is a self service kiosk for usps that is opened 24hrs/day. There is an African American gentleman that is homeless that goes there for shelter at night/in extreme weather conditions. In the 18 months I have been here, I have seen him since the beginning as I have reason to send boxes /parcels via the convenience of a 24 hr self service kiosk. I was at first caught off guard by him. But not anymore. He is a kind guy, innocent. He keeps everything in a black plastic garbage bag.
He is clearly not bothersome, as he chooses to frequent this very large regional post office that is under CONSTANT surveillance. After i thought about that and the fact he seems to try and be well mannered and is fairly well groomed for a homeless individual, he's now just a part of the post office to me.
Occasionally I have noticed other people seem disgruntled by him but he literally causes no trouble at all. Most people seem to be locals and react to him how I now do - exchange pleasantries, don't treat him like some weird outcast.
Last time I went it was after regular post office hours on a Saturday in broad daylight and I went about my business as per usual. There were other people in and out of the post office checking their PO boxes.
I walk out, there is a well off looking woman in her SUV. she's like "is that crazy man in there?"
I was like "huh? " then caught on. I was like "he's harmless i have been coming here for 18 months he's never once bothered me, there are surveillance cams everywhere, you will be fine "
She was a larger African American woman. I point that out just for context. She acted like i was crazy. She was like "well, ill go somewhere else and come back"
I was like, "i wouldn't worry about him, he's friendly, doesn't bother anyone, he will probably still be here when you come back because it is so hot outside"
Her "don't care he is crazy" and drove off.
Like really?
Anyway, MOST people are just one bad month away from homelessness. Never good to be judging or rude towards these people
Resteemed
Thanks for your story. It's a shame that people turn their noses up at homeless people, it could happen to them! The homeless men that I recall seeing all the time in the toon actually had a fan base some of them. One homeless guy who was no bother at all, just went about reading the paper had a FaceBook page I believe. I heard he died. I was rather sad at hearing it. Be safe and prepared.
Yeah. The higher than thou mentality is poison. Dumbest way you could possibly be. The VAST majority of homeless people are not crooks, "crazy", etc
Yes it is a shame, these homeless people have so much to offer. One of the guys I remember had post traumatic stress syndrome from being in the war. What a great guy.
Another one was confined to a wheelchair. I guess to a large extent if you compare the situation in the USA to Europe, in the US there is a higher level of inequality. It does not seem like the government has been able to address the issue appropriately or effectively.
Not that it is the government's job necessarily to hand out money to people. But maybe they can create an environment in which homeless people or disadvantaged people are given realistic opportunities to break out of poverty. Maybe the political discourse gets too caught up in capitalism/socialism debate sometimes, as if there is no in between.
I remember when I was living in Germany, I felt like in their system they use capitalist policies to MAKE money (increase the size of the pie) and then socialist type of policies to DISTRIBUTE the pie. What is wrong with that?
Yes, the pie distribution is not a bad idea. All people should be given a solid chance to arise from situations of poverty. Whether they do or not is on them of course
Yes that would be ideal, free from discrimination on any grounds.
In many ways the governments hands are tied by the central bankers holding them and us to ransom. If governments created the money at zero percent interest (which is as it should be) it would be a lot easier to more fairly distribute the money because they wouldn't have to support all the central banks endeavors, such as all the wars.
I hear you man, sometimes I feel like whats the point of feeling like a victim all the time.
I just peacefully non-comply with their system as best I can. I only use cash, I don't pay for a TV licence, I pay the unlawful council tax under duress and pay it in bags of coins. I shop at independent local English traders, rather than large supermarkets. I buy things off Amazon but make sure the trader is based in England that I'm buying it from and obviously recently I buy this from the SBD I've sold that I've earned here on steemit :-) I'm also a Prepper, which is a middle finger to them anyways. Plenty of things can be done to make you more in control. They haven't got us yet, now is the time to fight back.
Interesting.... My voting power is low now, will upvote when it is up higher.
I agree, I don't think people realize how easy it is to become homeless, especially right now, and especially in some countries that do not have an established informal settlement culture for housing like in India or South Africa (not that those can really be called houses, more like shacks).
For me it seems sometimes like the entire world economy is built on this Babylonian style house of cards principle, where the central banks try to keep the disposable/spendable funds to an absolute minimum in order to keep control of the economy.
When I was a student in Boston, I met many homeless people. We drove around in this van distributing food and helping them with transportation. Most of them were great people. I made some great friends there.