Ever since I was little, I always had an affinity for the homeless. Growing up during Reaganomics in NYC, i saw the homeless population swell. Originally, I was deathly afraid of them. As I grew older, I learned that they are people just like me. My mother always told us that people are people no matter what and if only evil people have fear. She always treated everyone with the utmost respect.
When I first started to work at age 14, i would give the homeless people money if they asked for it. In NYC, one would run into some characters who did the craziest things to earn money. Growing up in the era of stick up kids, i would prefer that folks beg for money then stick people up for it. So i had no problem giving them up. As I traveled the world and gained knowledge of myself, I would have some deep conversations with homeless people.
I recall telling one homeless man, that he was god. He would come by and hang out with us on saturday afternoons after our radio show. he had much to share. He was always intrigued by that statement. I learned so much from my encounter with him. When my wife and I lived on Omohundro, many of the homeless folks thought we ran a church since so many people came by on the weekends and we would hold a cipher on my steps.
What bothers me however, is other people's attitudes about them. People say the damnest things about them just because of one encounter.
"They don't leave me alone..."
"why don't they work..."
"they are loitering and stinking up the place..."
"they are going to hell..."
I hear worst but some of it i would prefer not to post. But party people, homeless people are people too.
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Everyone here in my neighborhood loves the homeless men. It's like almost a privilege to be homeless.
They are people too, but they should help themselves too. You can't expect us to do everything for them. Maybe get them a job, but we must teach them to fish.
if you read my entry again, i never said that we should do everything for them. my entry is just explaining that they are people, too. yet we treat them and refer to them as subhuman.
There is a homeless guy in my town. He is actually super rich, he just doesnt spend any money ever for some reason. His beard is like 4 feet long.