08-30-2014, 05:50 PM
Now how many here have been homeless - wave if you have been there.
I have been homeless, I had to resort to doing things in order to survive.
Fortunately for me I had a few talents that made my living on the streets and under the streets (I literally slept in a few storm sewers) slightly better.
I had a violin and I played - well actually I just fiddled around with the instrument.
Even being a 'street performer' its amazing how many pick up their pace to hurry by, looking everywhere else BUT at me or at my open violin case... hurry by, ignore the guy, forget him as soon as possible...
I did turn to other things like selling drugs and being a mule and other interesting 'grey business' sort of things to make ends meet. Life is harsh, and many people in the world just don't care.
I also did work with homeless shelters for a while. Having been homeless I already knew the general back story for the more common reasons why homelessness happens. Working in shelters I learned a good deal more about the reasons why homelessness happens.
I also worked with the Polk Street Boys and Girls... Polk Street San Francisco was predominate young (teen aged, pre-18 in most cases) kids who ran away from home or were kicked out of their home for being you know, gay or something.
Most turn to prostitution, not because they want to - its unwilling on their behalf - they do it because its the only way to make a few dollars to keep a bit of food in their bellies. Others turn to dealing drugs, being mules, panhandling....
It is kinda worse for the kids because frankly, the state cares so much that if the kid seeks help they are likely to end up being shipped back to their parents (often very abusive homes) or worse, they get shipped off to foster care where we just don't want to go into how miserable, heartbreaking and even more abusive that can be.
Most ran away as a way to survive... A concept I fully and completely understand.
Adults on the streets typically have fallen through the cracks of the Mental Health system. Many are vets who didn't get a good break once they served for their country... they kinda sorta got kicked to the curb - Thanks for your service, now be nice and stop being visible to the nation you bravely served and protected its freedom for.
To make it worse, many started out as whole complete human beings, but after serving in a war zone something broke inside of them.... I don't maybe humans ain't really cracked up to the whole slaughter or be slaughtered thing that War movies make us all see the honor and glory of the Craft of War.
Most homeless are terrified of the shelters. Bad stuff goes down in shelters, like rapes, like murders, like you know bad stuff. Even monitored shelters have crime problems.
You know who is most likely to rape you whilst in a shelter? the people running it, who are in theory suppose to watch your back. Yeah shelters are great, and while a goodly number of the workers are honest decent folk, apparently that job just draw in the sickest creeps imaginable, folk who love to take advantage of people who already are in a bad way.
Most shelters are already full, to get in you play a lottery - this means while you can get a cot and a hot meal tonight, you ain't necessarily going to get one one tomorrow. Every morning you have to give your name, every day at 5 or 6 om you have to be standing outside the shelter and ready to go in. If you are late, and your name was called, sorry, the bunk goes to the next person in line.
Social workers are over burdened with case loads... Forget real help coming from government... They send you to places like Catholic Charities or the Episcopalian Sanctuary where the churches are struggling to provide something resembling a hot meal and try to provide a dry spot and some form of safety for people to sleep a night.
Yes some homeless are drunks, and some are druggies - trust me, a bit of alcohol or drugs makes life a hell of a lot easier to live when you have no options and no hope of actually getting out of the streets.
Seriously, you think its hard to get a job when you have a phone number, and email address/ a snail mail address - its a hundred times harder when you don't have those things... or a fresh change of clothes if the potential boss can contact you via telepathy for you to come in for that job interview.
Since I know exactly what its like, I never give a person change.
I hand over bills, $5, $10, even $20 bills. When I have it. If I don't have it I look them straight in the eye and tell them:
'Sorry, I don't have money to spare.'
I treat them with the dignity and respect that a human being deserves. I do not make them invisible, I do not ignore them, I do not walk on as if no one spoke and no one is there.
When a person becomes invisible, ceases to exist, that is when strange things happen in the head and they start doing things like drinking, using drugs.. giving up and dying.
I don't lie to them either.
I don't care what they use it for. Seriously I hand over that money knowing that they asked for it because they need something. Oh yeah people do need drugs, do need alcohol in order to make it one more day.
Don't approve, that's your problem. Your disapproval and judgement is not going to end their problems, its not going to phase addiction or alcoholism in the slightest, it definitely doesn't make an already hard life harder.
So the 'lecture' about not doing drugs - stop - just shut your mouth... If you want to kick them while they're down then just kick them - preferably silently as that sends a clearer message.
Cain asked God 'Am I my brother's keeper?'
God didn't answer directly, however the biggest chunk of the bible is dedicated to demonstrating that yeah, we are our brother and sisters keeper.
This idea of tending to the sick, the poor, the hungry, the naked, the thirsty this isn't a concept solely owned and patented by Christianity - most religions have similar values.
And as for that guilt you experience, well that is a symptom of humanity. It will go away in time, if you just keep on lying or walking by quickly and averting your eyes.
I have been homeless, I had to resort to doing things in order to survive.
Fortunately for me I had a few talents that made my living on the streets and under the streets (I literally slept in a few storm sewers) slightly better.
I had a violin and I played - well actually I just fiddled around with the instrument.
Even being a 'street performer' its amazing how many pick up their pace to hurry by, looking everywhere else BUT at me or at my open violin case... hurry by, ignore the guy, forget him as soon as possible...
I did turn to other things like selling drugs and being a mule and other interesting 'grey business' sort of things to make ends meet. Life is harsh, and many people in the world just don't care.
I also did work with homeless shelters for a while. Having been homeless I already knew the general back story for the more common reasons why homelessness happens. Working in shelters I learned a good deal more about the reasons why homelessness happens.
I also worked with the Polk Street Boys and Girls... Polk Street San Francisco was predominate young (teen aged, pre-18 in most cases) kids who ran away from home or were kicked out of their home for being you know, gay or something.
Most turn to prostitution, not because they want to - its unwilling on their behalf - they do it because its the only way to make a few dollars to keep a bit of food in their bellies. Others turn to dealing drugs, being mules, panhandling....
It is kinda worse for the kids because frankly, the state cares so much that if the kid seeks help they are likely to end up being shipped back to their parents (often very abusive homes) or worse, they get shipped off to foster care where we just don't want to go into how miserable, heartbreaking and even more abusive that can be.
Most ran away as a way to survive... A concept I fully and completely understand.
Adults on the streets typically have fallen through the cracks of the Mental Health system. Many are vets who didn't get a good break once they served for their country... they kinda sorta got kicked to the curb - Thanks for your service, now be nice and stop being visible to the nation you bravely served and protected its freedom for.
To make it worse, many started out as whole complete human beings, but after serving in a war zone something broke inside of them.... I don't maybe humans ain't really cracked up to the whole slaughter or be slaughtered thing that War movies make us all see the honor and glory of the Craft of War.
Most homeless are terrified of the shelters. Bad stuff goes down in shelters, like rapes, like murders, like you know bad stuff. Even monitored shelters have crime problems.
You know who is most likely to rape you whilst in a shelter? the people running it, who are in theory suppose to watch your back. Yeah shelters are great, and while a goodly number of the workers are honest decent folk, apparently that job just draw in the sickest creeps imaginable, folk who love to take advantage of people who already are in a bad way.
Most shelters are already full, to get in you play a lottery - this means while you can get a cot and a hot meal tonight, you ain't necessarily going to get one one tomorrow. Every morning you have to give your name, every day at 5 or 6 om you have to be standing outside the shelter and ready to go in. If you are late, and your name was called, sorry, the bunk goes to the next person in line.
Social workers are over burdened with case loads... Forget real help coming from government... They send you to places like Catholic Charities or the Episcopalian Sanctuary where the churches are struggling to provide something resembling a hot meal and try to provide a dry spot and some form of safety for people to sleep a night.
Yes some homeless are drunks, and some are druggies - trust me, a bit of alcohol or drugs makes life a hell of a lot easier to live when you have no options and no hope of actually getting out of the streets.
Seriously, you think its hard to get a job when you have a phone number, and email address/ a snail mail address - its a hundred times harder when you don't have those things... or a fresh change of clothes if the potential boss can contact you via telepathy for you to come in for that job interview.
Since I know exactly what its like, I never give a person change.
I hand over bills, $5, $10, even $20 bills. When I have it. If I don't have it I look them straight in the eye and tell them:
'Sorry, I don't have money to spare.'
I treat them with the dignity and respect that a human being deserves. I do not make them invisible, I do not ignore them, I do not walk on as if no one spoke and no one is there.
When a person becomes invisible, ceases to exist, that is when strange things happen in the head and they start doing things like drinking, using drugs.. giving up and dying.
I don't lie to them either.
I don't care what they use it for. Seriously I hand over that money knowing that they asked for it because they need something. Oh yeah people do need drugs, do need alcohol in order to make it one more day.
Don't approve, that's your problem. Your disapproval and judgement is not going to end their problems, its not going to phase addiction or alcoholism in the slightest, it definitely doesn't make an already hard life harder.
So the 'lecture' about not doing drugs - stop - just shut your mouth... If you want to kick them while they're down then just kick them - preferably silently as that sends a clearer message.
Cain asked God 'Am I my brother's keeper?'
God didn't answer directly, however the biggest chunk of the bible is dedicated to demonstrating that yeah, we are our brother and sisters keeper.
This idea of tending to the sick, the poor, the hungry, the naked, the thirsty this isn't a concept solely owned and patented by Christianity - most religions have similar values.
And as for that guilt you experience, well that is a symptom of humanity. It will go away in time, if you just keep on lying or walking by quickly and averting your eyes.
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
