We called them Hobo's, Drifters, Bums, Drunks, and we forgot about them. During the Reagan years the annual tradition started. The feeding of the Homeless by politicians and civic minded on Thanksgiving. Perhaps on Christmas, but otherwise, nobody noticed, and they didn't care. There used to be the annual stories, the first Homeless to freeze to death, or die from exposure. We would all feel bad for a bit, and then we would forget them again.
When I saw we, I mean society. When I say we forgot them, I mean we as a society for the large part forgot our fellow citizens.
Perhaps it's something I've trained myself to do, or perhaps it's some sort of perverse miswiring in my brain. But I always think of them whenever we have a report about how awesome the economy is. I always think of the homeless when I hear about the great unemployment numbers. I think about them when I hear the phrase new normal to describe the mess we are in. We as a society have set the bar low, and we still need a ladder to get near it because all too often, we are much lower.
Yes, I donate every month to the local shelter. But even that doesn't feel like half enough. Houses sit empty around this nation, and these folks have no where to call home, and even if we gave them a house, they couldn't afford utilities because they can't get a job.
Perhaps its because only the kindness of my parents that I was saved from such a fate. I know I was lucky, both to have parents when fate kicked me to the curb and my home went the way of the Dodo, and to be fortunate enough to get a job that allowed me to get where I am.
There is an old saying. I hope you'll forgive me if I reference it now. There but for the grace of God, go I. Because that could have been me, on the street, homeless, and hopeless. Forgotten, and treated like garbage.
I hope I never forget the feeling of despair that I experienced. Because I could have been them.
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