Men can only be equal on the Day we are all Equal,

"the truth is not always Beautiful, nor beautiful Words the truth"

Lao Tzu

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

Albert Pine

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Homeless man dies of Natural Causes? or does He?

I was Blessed to have Meet a Man Who showed a genuine interest in me as a person he was an anomaly amongst men, And I say that to no offense of others or say it not meaning offense. It is not often that Homeless people run into others who will look them in the eye let alone hold a conversation with them.
I recently Read an article About a homeless person who had died This person was a friend, so maybe I am biased but he was said to have died from exposure, some who read this may remember me blogging about it others may not.
I have since that time read many articals on this subject in the past week I have failed to post on this blog and have been somewhat of a recluse and withdrawn from my friends and others whom I interact with on a regular basis, the reason being is because I have become somewhat obsessed with the deaths of the homeless people whom in a lot of cases I have been where they are and may have meet them briefly or as likely may have not. What Obsessed me in most cases it in the matter of a persons death was ruled by local coroners. As being attributed to natural causes.
I am today writing this because I wish to challenge that very primes There is absolutely nothing natural about the death of a homeless person. For A person to Lay down under a bridge to sleep and never wake up, or for a person to drink Himself to a state of slumber and to be called home while he slept, Is no more natural to a man, woman or child Than is falling out of the sky in a plane full of fellow travelers it is not natural and for anyone to accept this from their county coroner and never question it is apathy.
I see homelessness differently than most people as I have been homeless for a long time I do at times judge others because of there views of homeless people, And my judgment often comes from my inability to make others see homeless people as Human beings first and foremost. It has just recently come to me as a realization I can’t make anyone view us in anyway except the way in which they choose. Some people are destined to always view homeless people as less than Human and it is to those people that I plead with my blog and my life,it is to those that simply have never bothered to get to know someone who is homeless. To those that may refuse to look the homeless man on the corner in the eye, to the person That crosses the street to avoid the homeless man by the corner store every morning. To all of you I plead that you change something in you that makes you want to go by that corner and say good morning to this person.Change something that makes you see us as Human Because it is my contention that Men don’t die naturally from homelessness, they die from broken hearts and lack of Human contact. they Die out here my friends because they see it no longer matters to anyone outside themselves if they live.
So In what I contend I shift the responsibility of a person dying on the streets to the lives of everyone who may have driven by them on the corner or seen them in front of the corner store anyone who didn’t have enough courage to step outside themselves and even say hello to them. I shift the responsibility to each and everyone of us. we are the reasons that men die on the streets in this world. it was Our inability to speak up for them and to say to our church’s and our Governments and our families and our friends it is Enough we must do something We are responsible in that we have failed and have given over to apathy and said we must give others money so that it becomes their problem and not ours we continued to go to Church’s that say we give to the local mission. it is now where we send them.
We are at fault, and that is all of us as a whole, I do not exclude myself I am at fault because as a homeless man I have for years refused to stand up and say pay attention to us I have stood by and watched the homeless struggle and Not plead their cause.
But that I can change I can now say enough Hear us see us and don’t let us die out here. and Remember You all this There is No such thing as the natural death of a homeless Human Being.

1 comment:

  1. I like what you have written. I think you are right. Just because we can't fix the entire problem of homelessness, does not mean we can't be kind to the homeless, or offer whatever we have to give. It may not change their situation, but it might make the next 5 minutes of their life feel better. If everyone took a small piece of the problem, it wouldn't seem so big. I realized, this year, that as long as I've lived in my home...there has been a man that's been living on the street just as long. One day, I decided to ask him his name, and offer him a gatorade. I shook his hand, told him my name. Now, if I see him...I stop and offer him a soda, or a few dollars if I can find the cash. If kindness is all we have to offer, that's okay...offer it.

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