Street Spirit December 2005

Reach Out to the Poor and Abandoned

by Katherine Beltran

How long can one look the other way? Even in my own hardship I cannot sit still and watch the suffering our nation has long ignored, and now has forgotten.

My grandfather, an immigrant from Switzerland, "pulled himself up by his bootstraps," raised and provided for his family, and was prominent in the town where he decided to reside. I last saw him when I was two years old. That little town still remembers him 30-some years later.

There was a time when a person could come to this country, work hard, build a life. Remember? Well, you find that a silly question, so let me entertain you with a more ridiculous query: Can Generation X, born in the land of opportunity, work hard and build a life or a new beginning? If you are experiencing turbulence during your morning coffee, then I have given you something to remember.

Have you heard, or even experienced, the inhumanity when the housed see the houseless. Such acceptable racism - the oppressed, singled out, unheard, unseen, accepted only by those with the same struggles, fears, and muffled cries.

Survivors use pride to live through the torturing silence and another smile that says, "No." Beat down minute by minute, cast out of real human existence, forced to obey those who condemn them as undeserving to breathe, the weary are forced to endure one more disappointment; the hand becomes chained from reaching out.

Being houseless is to sleep under bridges, in abandoned buildings, on city walks, in parks, under bushes, in broke-down cars and vacant basements. The streets are home - not a comfortable house. Inhabitants of such places are called a burden on society, though the economics and stigmas of this nation were caused by the great leaders - all quite wealthy.

Surely, we don't know any persons who use such savage terms to describe the downtrodden. Labels such as: deadbeats, bums, dope fiends, addicts, alcoholics, criminals, the desperate, the destitute, the desolate, the disabled, the 5150s, the misfits, the unfit, the jobless, the disenfranchised; oh, but wait, did someone say Crazy or was that Lazy?

Surely, one of great possession or wealth may conclude that the houseless are lazy. Why not? After all, it could be burdensome and a little costly to recognize that we could develop and implement a plan which brings a solution to the cost of a life in the inner cities and skid rows of urban America, not to mention the devastation of a corpse found frozen to death by an innocent child on the way to school. I am not in the least bit apologetic - if you haven't heard it before that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Some bodies are never found and some never identified.

Now, don't try to take the road back; you have come such a long way. Besides, the ultimate authority will always be close by: your conscience, higher power, yourself, unless one is a sociopath without proper diagnosis and/or medication.

Those referred to as "lazy" often work harder than the blue-collar worker, and manipulate their environment as skillfully as the white-collar worker cheats on his taxes. The houseless, hungry, weary, fearful person, the one with broken-down pride and all the guilt and shame of failing on his shoulders, finds his way to the welfare office long before the caseworker steps out of the front door of the condo.

Too often, that social worker passes the buck with answers like, "I don't know what happened." "Well, the computer is down." "You have to turn it in again; I can't seem to find your paperwork." "When I get a chance." "I was on vacation."

Even when qualifying for assistance, the system knows all the ways to ignore human need. "All we can give you is a partial allotment of your food stamps since you do not have a kitchen to cook your own food; but what we can do is let you pick up your card tomorrow." Followed by an even better response: "I'm sorry, but that is all I can do until you talk to the employment specialist tomorrow before 10:00 a.m."

The working hours are brutal on the houseless. All day and all night, wondering when the safest time would be to sleep with one eye open. On the streets, one could be robbed, raped, beaten, carried off to jail, miss a meal or a shower. Imagine the strain of always being on call and then executing longer hours that turn into several 24-hour shifts (which would be insidious to the soldiers in Iraq).

Rumor would like me to believe that the union worker or even the U.S. president can take a vacation, when, say, an elderly mother is ailing. I am disillusioned, due to the unknown whereabouts of my birth mother who gave birth to seven children. Don't worry, not your fault.

Lives in this nation have been but a cultural experiment. Morals and values are left by the waste-side in bits and pieces, and for what reasons? I am willing to accept the truth, but who is really paying the perpetual price? Where did the spiral of morals and values hit an all-time low? How many bottoms are enough? If the wealthy never feel the lowest level, does that mean there isn't any problem?

Let's get real! The experiment was created for egotistical leaders looking out for their own best interest. Family values turned into: "We don't need to stay married. We can be self-centered, self-serving and go our separate ways." Abandonment took place and the children were forgotten.

None knew how to raise a child and share. Child support and alimony became a physical and monetary trap. Children were abused and told not to tell, or used as a pawn to get cooperation, money, power, control, sympathy, love, security, more friends, and things. Children's innocence and stability were taken.

The forgotten children were left for jobs, education, a new spouse, a fulfilling life of self-love. How nice to grow up and be blamed, taunted, ridiculed, locked up, addicted, confused, frustrated, fearful, and broken-hearted - and then be rejected even in the most fruitful country for not fitting into the American Dream.

Ah yes, the American Dream started out by hating and killing. We hated a government, so we killed, enslaved, imprisoned a culture and then stole land from the Native Americans. And now the citizens of this land believe giving them some of their cultural identity is too much.

After generations of diversity, changes, radical construction, and constant reconstruction, the people cannot connect the dots, see eye-to-eye, and get along with one another. Why? Come on now. Racism Is Alive and Well in 2005. All people are affected and touched by this illness; and if you believe otherwise, your condition of denial is most dangerous. A learned behavior passed down through the generations. A learned behavior practiced in which the houseless are not exempt.

The American Dream hated Jews, Japanese, Vietnamese and Vietnam Vets, hated Mexicans, the Chinese, etc. What about the shiploads of slaves from various parts of the world who made life possible for the lazy, crazy, and many uneducated people - who found North America by accident, may I add. The American Dream was self-centered fear, born of inhumane, sadistic, evil, vicious, and cruel hatred. This country was established and built on an insurmountable terror and horrific, heinous hatred (sounds like Hitler to me).

What an experiment! Now we have disabled, wheelchair-bound senior citizens without addiction living under bridges and in a variety of unsanitary and life-threatening places. The elderly: freezing to death, starving, and isolated, barely surviving their last years - their golden years. Grandma is houseless, shelterless, unable to afford a low-income SRO hotel room.

She may be waiting for approval from GA, SSA, SSI, or SSDI (whichever comes first). Grandpa is deceased and grandma was waiting several years because she was displaced because of a clerical error and may die before the battle of suspiciousness is over; and the attorney wants his/her cut first. The wheelchair was donated, but can someone donate a safe place to live, a competent attorney, a mailbox, prescription drugs, a service to locate her daughter (she lost the phone number in the rain)? Just a passing smile is nowhere nearly enough to sponsor the houseless. No matter how softly spoken, the word "no" is aggressive to the most vulnerable of the oppressed.

No one truly knows why the family doesn't or cannot assist or take on the responsibility. Perhaps the bond was broken after the parents started to fight; the television was the distraction when no one could read the bedtime story. When did anyone find time to love? When the children cried, who had time to hug? Sounds harsh, but in many cases such is true.

Mothers had to be strong, had to be heroes, and they claimed to never be wrong. So the forgotten children were tossed to the side, and they grew up and moved on. The family has been out of touch, caught up in their own lives, long gone. The hero was only a fairy tale vision of a child's prayer: praying for a mom.

Clueless, the daughter hangs up the receiver and states: "Mom's homeless. She says she's alright. She said she is waiting for her check and looking for a little studio apartment; and the drop-in has decent food and the doctor told her that her blood pressure is down. She is the strongest woman I have ever known!"

Detachment? Insensitive? Ignorance? Barbaric? I am without words that can explain how disgusted I sincerely feel about these situations. The connection has been damaged. Can the adult children really know what to do? Did the houseless come with an instruction book? How does the son or daughter reach out to the mother who has always been away?

We must find a better, safer solution. Today is the day to make a change, create an opportunity, and bring dignity to all who survive from situational houselessness, with circumstances not always within the realm of foreseeable control. Starting somewhere can only begin when you stop trying to figure everything out.

Who really cares why life happens? I want to know why people do not care about the lives of others. I cannot find my mother. Is she alive? Is she houseless? Does anyone care that she may be in need? Do people just walk by and smile?

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