I should be doing work, but instead I'm being pissed off.
Reading this makes me so sick. So very sick. Especially the comments afterward.
Homeless people are people, too. I don't know why so few people understand this. When it is impossible for them to find jobs, when difficult upbringings and terrible social situations and lack of education leaves people with no options, this is what happens. ( Read more... )
Homeless people are people, too. I don't know why so few people understand this. When it is impossible for them to find jobs, when difficult upbringings and terrible social situations and lack of education leaves people with no options, this is what happens. ( Read more... )
Really, I think a lot of it comes down to concern for image. I hate to keep bringing up Nashville (but this was a serious turning point in my social justice life!), but there are things like a giant war memorial juxtaposed with homeless veterans suffering from various mental illnesses imposed on them by the war... a housing unit for low income families that has a beautiful facade on the side facing the main road, but on the other side, it looks like crap... The same is true here. Philadelphia is trying to uphold an "image" of... utopia, like you say, I guess. A place where the dirty reality of homelessness is concealed. The Parkway is a huge tourist draw, and having homeless people there is a "turn off" for tourists, supposedly. And I guess I can understand why. It's infuriating, though, that this is the city's idea of "dealing with it", and that the general public seems to agree.
I kind of wish it was mandatory for everyone to make friends with a homeless person at some point in their lives. To listen to that story. But then again, I'm sure there are folks who could go away from that experience unchanged.
Anyway, the fact that finances and ownership are what guarantees basic human rights in this country is pretty much why I'm pretty close to a neo-Marxian.
Sorry for the rant. :) Thanks for yours!
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