Living and working in a city where the weather is comfortable and sunny year-round has its problems, the most glaring of which are the homeless squatting in every street corner. Every morning by 5, the Starbucks next door opens for business. There's nothing like the smell of morning coffee filtering through the pungent odor of a urine soaked front door.
This is a city where high-profile businesspeople earning thousands of dollars per hour regularly mingle with street dwellers caked in their own feces. I mean that literally. You have to be careful where and how you step into the crosswalk. Every city dweller has a big city apathy that has set in permanently.
Today I had to jump over a homeless man sleeping near a vent at the bottom of the escalator leading out of the subway. I had to step around his things and jump over his sleeping body almost slipping on a wet substance I hope was just water. And it pretty much ruined my morning.
Before I started working here, I would pass by and occassionally drop change, and I would sometimes donate to charities working in the city. Yet, when I started to work in the city everyday, I have had to learn to keep my eyes pointed downward because some mentally disturbed homeless may confront you if you look at them wrong and you might step in something unsavory.
I realized I don't want the homeless in my city, and I want to haul them off back home.
The climate of the city plays a huge factor, as the overwhelming majority of the homeless on our city streets actually come from communities thousands of miles away. It's got me wishing I lived in a state out in the middle of nowhere. Will the people in Kansas have to deal with the homeless living in their city streets? Of course not, their winters are below freezing and their summers are above 100. I won't even mention places like Montana and North and South Dakota. Ironically, their homeless tend to stay indoors and out of sight virtually year round. Otherwise, they'd have to start migrating into my city.
We really need to protect our borders. We need to build ten foot reinforced barriers against these homeless men and women, and we should immediately ship back anyone who crosses over. They're bums who are a drain on our city and state's resources. Their children even attend our public schools without paying into any of our city or state's taxes. It's just totally unfair how middle America expect us to take care of their homeless people and I wish everyone goes back where they came from.
Anyway, at the end of the day, I will again be wading through the homeless population. *sigh*
i never thought that i would see someone so prejudiced by their own job.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
How dare you say that there needs to be a 10 ft. barrier for homeless people. How dare you criticize people who can not affford to take baths, can't go to a shelter because each one they try to go to is over filled. Wow. You amaze me. I used to be homeless and that is such an insult. So do you think I should not win the scholarship since I used to be homeless? You amaze me. I feel so sorry for you because you put yourself on a pedestal of finances and believe that is where everybody should be.Maybe if you were homeless, you would know how it feels. Wow. Like I said you are amazing.
We have a lot of homeless people, and the temperature ranges from 60 below zero in winter to 105 in the summer. It's a problem a lot of cities need to solve, but not in order to keep people like you comfortable. They need to solve it for the people who need safe housing. It's not always their fault they are on the street.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
while I'm sure a warmer climate may be tempting to America's homeless population, states like Arizona, Florida, and New Mexico do not, in fact, boast the majority of the U.S.'s homeless.
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Washington, D.C. have the highest rates of homelessness, according to a study released in 2007 by The National Alliance to End Homelessness.
I count 7/10 of those places as being ones that do not have a warm climate year-round.
I am working on a blog regarding the Homeless population in the United States. I'll update this comment when it's completed. In the mean time, I hope the children (23% of homeless), military veterans (over 1/4 of homeless population), and families fleeing from domestic violence (most frequent cause of family homelessness) don't bother you too much.
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ProU
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Some mistakes can't be undone/ it'll never be like it was/ and wishing for it only makes it worse
Rocky Votolato
So much more eloquent than my response! And I look forward to reading that blog!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I was going for a purposefully realistic, plausible beginning (touch of cynicism and conceit) followed with an over-the-top, wild solution that no thinking person would accept using three paraphrased statements from the national minutemen organization as reasons. No one here has seen the Yes Men?
I just find it odd anyone would take this blog entry as seriously as any of you have as I was smiling when I wrote it making sure each paragraph drips with self-importance. The homeless is just my setup for a ridiculous conclusion.
How would we be able to pick the fake among hundreds of thousands of self-important opinions on the site?
I just couldn't hear the sarcasm or satire in the post anywhere. Sorry. It sounded very sincere to me. Also, if you are going to paraphrase something, you should cite it. Or did you? i don't remember now.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I read it once and couldn't decide if it was satire or not, so I read it again and it did, indeed sound sincere.
I'm glad it wasn't, but I'm still working on my own blog regarding homelessness in the US. Just an awareness type of thing, really. It'll be a while before it's done.
read my blogs!
ProU
Not ProU
Some mistakes can't be undone/ it'll never be like it was/ and wishing for it only makes it worse
Rocky Votolato
I put in.
That is the post's entire point. The funniest satire comes when people can't tell if it's satire. See Andy Kaufman or read Vonnegut for hints.
The best thing that could happen is if someone actually posted that he agrees with my sentiment. That would be hilarious.
So why could you not state your opinion and idea of doing this later on then leftfield? I am so glad you got a laugh out of it. But it is not funny to others that have been homeless or know someone that is homeless. But I do see where you are trying to get at. I think you would have gotten better ratings if you mentioned that this is what certain people believe or act like. Then people would have gotten your general idea of what you were trying to do.
I think that should have given you a first hint.
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Washington, D.C.
I wonder how that list compares with the benefits that are available for the homeless. Some places are much more generous then others. Put out honey and get ants.
What seem to be missing from the statistics above was the percentage of the homeless who are drug and alcohol abusers. It is a very large percentage. I favor trying to help the people who you named in the statistics above who are temporarily down on their luck try to get back on their feet. Somebody should be treating these people differently and reaching out with a helping hand. But there is a big segment of the homeless population that is chronically that way and it is largely a choice to live as derelicts. These people are a scourge and they should not be allowed to burden decent people with either their presence or as a drain on the treasury.
My small Wyoming town seems to have gained its first permanent homeless person. He calls himself "Satelite". He probably would have moved onto warmer climates long ago except people keep giving him food and money. He spent all of a very long cold winter living by the Interstate Highway on-ramp. Our town has a fairly nice and chronically under-utilized homeless shelter. I volunteer there from time to time. The Sheriff repeatedly tried to get Satelite to move into the shelter but he chose to remain homeless.
Our economy here is booming due to mineral development. Employers here are desperate for labor and even fast food jobs are starting at over $10 per hour. There is really no reason for somebody to remain homeless here except by choice. Someone who chooses not to work is not the kind of person we need in our community.
I think we should run him out of town and send him to wherever Leftfield lives. If I knew where that was, I'd chip in for a bus ticket.
I think we should run him out of town and send him to wherever Leftfield lives.
Yeah right. Like I would even have noticed. I already have to buy new shoes every couple of weeks. What's one more?
the promised blog is completed...
read my blogs!
ProU
Not ProU
Some mistakes can't be undone/ it'll never be like it was/ and wishing for it only makes it worse
Rocky Votolato
I took the conclusion as satirical, but the rest, well, yeah, I have heard those complaints.
Having it under "shared responsibility" doesn't really go along with your defense that the blog is satirical.
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
It's describing a character's reactions, trying to elicit sympathy for his plight. Yet, the visceral reactions to it are perfectly the opposite. Your sympathy doesn't lie with the character.
I think it's perfect satire based on the responses.
Also, it's under "shared responsibility" because this is where the blog should be. It's points out a societal problem.
This is kind of shocking. I mean, it can't be all that pleasant to almost step in "something unsavory", but I do believe those people on the sidewalk have a harder time of it than you. Maybe I'm just looking at this the wrong way or something...
~ *~
This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
This blog writes about the inconvenience of a businessperson, but you're only thinking about the homeless.