The problem...

Houston we have a problem. As I sit here, listening to the window blow, another burst of Arctic air getting ready to wind its way through the area, I am thinking about many things.  I did not watch the AFC or NFC Championship games, I am not interested as my team barely finished with a five hundred record.  Anyway, I did watch some recaps of the games and the thing I saw was passionate fans.  I have no issue with people being passionate about a team, sport, movie, or anything else they can find something to support.  The problem is, with all the things going on in the world, it seems a waste of good energy.  Sure one day a week is good to blow off steam, everyone needs that release.

The problem is, we support these people, we cheer them, we admire them, and that is good, but there are other people who are heroes off the field of play who need the same things we willingly give to others.  People who need the support, who need someone in their corner telling them to keep fighting for every yard, every point.  These people, the homeless, the down trodden (the poor and the working poor), the injured warriors of this nation often fall unnoticed, except for a few holidays, or some other special occasion. 

We ignore these people, look down on them, insult them, we could not even be bothered to say a single kind word to them.  While trying to help a homeless family, I have been accused of being a con artist, I have been told that I should just ignore them, they want their lives to be that way.  Nobody of sound mind wants to live in a tent.  Nobody wants to be poor, so poor that they go from hand to mouth.  Nobody wants to work a job where your dreams go to die, as you slowly kill yourself to work.  Nobody wants that for a life. 

We want a home, to call our own, we want a full belly, we want nice things in life.  Yet we are looked down for it.  We are demonized because we want the same things everyone else does.  We are considered parasites killing off its host, when all we want is a chance to move forward.  To have shelter from the cold and storms, to have a decent job, to live a life that is not all about one thing, surviving. 

When your life is all about surviving, there is nothing else.  You work, if you can work, get your meager rations, you work, pay your bills, you work, and you die with your boots on.  That isn't living, that is surviving.  I'll pray for you does not put food in my stomach, or a roof over my head, it does nothing for someone in need.  It makes you feel better, it deflates me. 

So, we have so much passion for the wrong things, the things we can never hope to change the outcome of.  Sports teams play just as hard when the stadium is full, just like they played when the stadium was empty.  Soldiers fight often without recognition, unless you were one, you do not know, nor can you understand what they have experienced.  The same can be said with being poor, the working poor, or homeless.  You do not know what those things are about, until you have been there.  Sure you might be able to empathize, and sympathize, but can you understand it, no.  It is no different than claiming to understand racism and bigotry, while you have never experienced it.