I hate homelessness

As much as some people seem to hate the homeless, I hate homelessness, and the greed that spawns it.  I hate the people who look down on the homeless as though we are lepers.  Then there was Maryann Edwards appointed Mayor (council member for a town out there).  Her view is that homelessness is a choice.  She also added that the homeless have refused all help, and seek to prey on the sympathy of others.   

By help, does she mean no welfare for those who do not have children?  The long waits for section eight housing?  Homeless shelters that preach Jesus at you before allowing you a small meal and bed?  All right, fine; I refused shelter and food from groups that want to preach Jesus at me, I have reasons.  First, I would be telling them a lie if I said I accept Jesus, second I would be hypocritical to my own religion and that of my ancestors, three it really does try my patients (hey I am there for food and a cot, not being told I am there because I don't love Jesus and am being punished).  You know, I always love when idiots double down on their ignorance.  See, what I do, what others try to do in helping the homeless is enabling them to do drugs.  Sorry, my major vice is tobacco, and the occasional beer.  Many homeless people have that very vice.  Anyway, her plan on homelessness has three parts, and the first would be a great step, except it is only using nonprofit charity groups that rely on private funding.

The next two steps are where she really goes off the rails with it.  The next step includes spending your tax dollars to increase patrols in known homeless hangouts, whereas those caught will likely be arrested (again on your dime) and held (hot meal and a cot for at least one night).  Of course, the third step...  Alright, outlaw panhandling, if you think she is paying for it out of her pocket, your entirely wrong.  Along with the third step they are starting a media campaign to tell you how "you giving alms (charity) to the poor you are perpetrating the problem of homeless." So much for not using taxpayer money to eliminate homelessness in her town.  Speaking of which, how severe is the problem?  Eighty people.  Yeah, it would break the bank to do something worthwhile for these 80 or so people. 

Now another blogger +Kevin Barbieux has just said something I have railed against constantly, not all homeless people are lazy drug addled deadbeats who want nothing more than to sit on our backsides and collect a check.  Actually, you should check out one of his entries in particular (I Hate the Homeless).  He brings up some awesome points, in a way I am not currently capable of doing.  I mean lets be honest, 2 years sitting in a tent, lying to friends and family about it, and otherwise trying to hide the fact that you shower weekly while you find a job and do everything you can to dig out of a pretty screwed up mess.

I did not ask for this, I do not want this, the man has a point, nobody does.  My friends who do know try and help, they dislike this more than I do.  I mean to pay the rent I clean bathrooms I encounter crap like this nearly every day:

Man when I was busting my chops at a dead end minimum wage paying job, that was causing me to destroy my truck, I never foresaw that shit.  The hours of work on papers, the sleepless nights writing because I was held over at work and had to finish a paper because deadlines weren't extended short of your own death, I never imagined this shit.  Hell, I spent the last two years of my college career doing homework from my campsite, library or Starbucks.  I doubt my professors, advisers, or peers I went with even had a clue I was homeless.  It might have gotten my some pity, but it goes to show you, not every homeless person is lazy.  I busted my arse at work, in school, I graduated with honors, and while my spelling and grammar is lackluster, I did learn something in college.  I tried to hang a shingle out, get a job in my area of study, and nothing.  People constantly suggest going back to where I worked, or going to another company in the same field, but at this point, it seems pointless to go somewhere that pays the minimum and barely have enough to even keep working.

Some say section eight housing, this place, that place.  The fact is, I was responsible.  I don't use drugs (outside of tobacco when I can afford it), I rarely drink, I take on odd jobs when I can, I clean bathrooms daily to get a whopping 50 bucks a month off my rent, which is nearly the same as a house.  Sure I could probably get into a cheap house, add the power bill, internet, television and its out of my price range.  But my credit looks bad.  So bad in fact a 777 spiraling into the ground looks more pleasant.  I don't beg or mooch, I probably should, I might actually get somewhere.  But that brings up something else Mr. Barbieux brought up, it takes more than pulling yourself up by the bootstraps to get out of being homeless, or even being poor.  It takes resources, it takes money, it takes time, it takes many things that the poor and homeless simply do not have access to.  But again, sometimes the homeless feel pretty down and out because we are.  Those people you think don't try, when it started going wrong, they probably tried, they worked their backsides off to escape that freight train as it bore down on them.  I will tell you one thing, its the only thing you should take away from this entry.  When you go full throttle in life, you run the risk of burning yourself out.  Did you ever think that people who no longer even try to escape poverty or their own homelessness have simply burned out.  They fought the situations in their lives, and they no longer can fight.  They have given up, because they cannot win.  Those are the people who need help just as badly as the people who continue to fight.