Can Your Magic End Homelessness
Can you hear the music? Those ballads of joy, the ringing of bells, the lyrics of faith. It is that time of the year when music piping through Macy's tiny ceiling speakers and every other department store during these holidays is spreading good tidings. They overwhelm radio waves, television commercials, and our own ears.
Inspires you to send holiday greeting cards with the latest, and best, picture of your family. Got to set up the holiday decorations, and hang the lights outside.
I once saw a handful of youth camped out on the edge of Hollywood, with their tattered clothes, dirty sleeping bags,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and a few tin cans scattered about. Obvious signs of their homelessness. They had hung a few dull ornaments on a tiny Charlie Brownlike Christmas tree.
I'm sure their nighttime dreams of holiday music were more like, "Silent Night, Unholy Night."
Homelessness in America during the holidays is a tough time. When you are down and struggling, you really do not want to see happy, smiling people walking through the malls as if no difficult economy has touched them.
It is more like the Grinch has swooped down from his mountaintop hideaway to take away every morsel of human dignity, your ability to buy food, clean clothes. Your home. His beady eyes and wicked smile peering down at your inhumane state of poverty. Nothing holy about that.
When I was young, I used to ask, "How does Santa Claus come to a house that doesn't have a chimney?" Today, I ask, "How does old Saint Nick come to your house, if you have no home?"
Is Christmas really merry? I see that fake Santa Claus ringing a cheery bell in front of a red charity donation pot. Toss a few quarters, perhaps even dollars, to justify a day full of shopping.
Inevitably, the local news station parks in front of a toy giveaway event, where a Los Angeles homeless shelter passes out free Nike shoes and brand new dolls. The lines weave around the blighted neighborhood, filled with people who have been affected by the Grinch.
A few new toys for the holidays warm our hearts, but does not do much to help a family overcome extreme poverty.
I sometimes think a homeless person parked on a sidewalk outside of one of America's bustling shopping centers is really looking at a snow globe, with its perfect little figures and dreamlike snow environment. On the outside, the reality of homelessness is everywhere, but inside the tiny little plastic globe is the dream of Christmas.
Is Christmas just a dream for the hundreds of thousands of Americans sleeping on our streets?
The phone calls at the homeless agencies I run, ring off the hook during these holidays. Everyone wants to volunteer cook a meal, bring a few toys. Much needed help during these busy times.
But where are they the rest of the year?
I used to dream that Christmas was everyday of the year when I was a kid. As an adult, I still have that dream, but not Christmas for me. My dream is that every day of the year, the phone would ring off the hook of homeless agencies with people wanting to help.
When I was growing up, I used to have this really long list for Santa Claus. I would print very neatly the toys I wanted. A Sony Walkman, StingRay bicycle. Slot cars and an erector set.
Today, I have a different kind of Christmas list:
Generosity. Please return the generosity in this country when caring Americans literally gave millions to the hurting and homeless affected by Hurricane Katrina,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. Homelessness across America still needs help today.
Change. I wish the traditional homeless care givers will embrace change. Food programs and limited shelter beds are good, but longterm housing is better.
More Homes. We need hundreds of thousands of permanent homes linked with caring supportive services, if we are to end the plight of homelessness in America.
More Housing Vouchers. Building new homes takes years. Helping people pay rent now gets people into housing immediately. Vouchers is the quick answer.
I wonder if I was good enough this year for Santa to grant me my wishes?
If I can be a little controversial, it may be hard for us to believe, but nothing short of legal action will ultimately end homelessness, because some people like to be homeless. It's a lifestyle they have chosen. I know that sounds crazy to most of us, but I say that based on what I've heard from people who have worked with the poor. Some people really do choose to live that way. I think it's very sad and wrong of them, too, because of course many people are not homeless by choice, do not beg by choice, and there is no way for those of us who want to help to differentiate those people from the beggarsbychoice on the street who really could go find productive employment if they cared to.
Writing to the CocaCola elf isn't going to solve homelessness. Besides these days, you're liable to run across him sacked out on a park bench. No, if you want to cure homelessness, you need to first stop the infilling of urban areas with people, and you need to 'dress down' the economy a little, to the point where people of little or no means can at least find 2030 hours a week of some kind of work, with which to sustain themselves. But, you run into a new 21st century social elite in there somewhere, the kind of people that generally live behind locked doors and security systems, and want to keep the riffraff, the offal,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the human garbage, OUT of their neighborhoods, because they're the Good People(R), and you're not.
But seriously, if you're looking to stop homelessness, then lobby to build community centers, where people can get a shower, wash their clothes, and 40 winks and a hot plate of food, at little or no cost, and maybe some social services of some kind where they can get pointed towards an employer of some kind. Hand up, not handout, not free booze and a park bench to sleep on.
Finally, also remember that some people just plain 'give up'. They quit, game over, they've had enough, and quit trying to hang onto anything, car, house/apartment, job, etc. Lots of competition out there, and people getting nasty and underhanded about it.
What American's need is to understand that it is wrong to have some people unable to afford health care. And it is unamerican to have hundreds of thousands of homeless people,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. It is unamerican to have education dumbed down. It is unAmerican to have some children going to great schools and universities while others are lucky to have a school which isn't without supplies or good teachers. Other kids are not taught science if science disagrees with a religious belief. The earth is not ten thousand years old and it is billions of years old. And natural selection determined the evolution of all creatures from single cells. Now some would call this a socialist perspective but I think of it as basic Chritianity. Americans used to care about their fellow citizens and they used to care about controlling dishonesty. Bernie Madoff succeeded because people were so greedy,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. The picture of Duby sitting in his huge tax payer paid plane gazing down at New Orleans underwater is the picture of the haves and the have nots,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
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