Welcome to America

[Cyborg Girl]

Last week I met a homeless woman. She was outside panhandling, and looked really cold - shivering, etc. I gave her my hat - she didn't have one - and bought her a cup of hot tea. She told me she'd been on the streets since her mother died. She was about my age.

Today, a married couple. The wife was pregnant. The husband said they'd come to Massachusetts for housing, and the apartment had been sold already by the time they got here; they'd been stranded. According to him they'd been sleeping in South Station - the guards actually let them, wonder of wonders. They hadn't eaten in a couple days, and it showed. I bought them a sandwich and hot coffee (for whatever the hell that's worth), wished them luck, and got on my train home. I'm on the train right now - kind of wondering if I could have done more.

I've been seeing more and more of this lately. Young people and married couples on the streets, more of them than I've ever seen in my life before. Not the usual boozers asking for money, but people who don't seem used to it, and who are honestly grateful for some food and a hot drink. People who are completely lost.

I feel like I've walked into a dystopia. Things have been bad before, but I've never seen it like this. The economists are saying things are getting better, and they're clearly not. America was never really the land of the free; but now it's like we've given up all pretense. The TVs in South Station are still blaring paranoid terrorism fantasies, the NSA is wiretapping everyone, and the government doesn't even give a damn that its own citizens are starving and freezing.

What the hell is happening in this country?

[geonuc]

It can get pretty depressing sometimes. Lot of people doing very poorly. Other than getting involved in the political process and trying to effect some positive change, all you can do, I think, is what you are already doing. Give a little help to those who ask for it.

[code monkey]

... kind of wondering if I could have done more ...

What the hell is happening in this country?

privatization.

could you have done more? of course - you could have given them everything that you had with you. not a wise course, however. what should you do? be aware. always have some change or a few dollar bills with you to pass out. the fast food places used to sell books of tickets; each good for $1 or so. if these are still available, carry some with you. volunteer with an organization that works with/advocates for the homeless/hungry. donate to your local food pantry and coat or blanket drives. let what you've seen inform your voting. but above all, know that you did something. you helped some people.

as for the people panhandling to buy alcohol, something happened that made them crawl into a bottle. my father would always say that they'd gotten to the point that not having it is as painful as not having food is for a non-alcoholic. whenever we drove through the bowery, he'd always give something to the people who came up to the car, usually trying to wipe the windshield but sometimes just asking for money. when we were younger my sister and i were bothered by this. now, one of my biggest regrets is that, when hurrying to the subway, i didn't stop to give something to the fellow who'd announced that he'd come uptown to make the price of a bootle; no nonsense about soup or coffee. dad would have been disappointed in me.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Now you know what they mean when they say we've had a "jobless recovery," GJ. Yes, the economy, as a whole, has recovered. But when you look where that recovery has been, you see that the poor and the middle class haven't recovered. The upper class has. Beyond where they were to begin with. So, yes, technically the economy has recovered. But the wealth distribution has gotten all fucked up. Well, even more than it was, that is.

as for the people panhandling to buy alcohol, something happened that made them crawl into a bottle. my father would always say that they'd gotten to the point that not having it is as painful as not having food is for a non-alcoholic. whenever we drove through the bowery, he'd always give something to the people who came up to the car, usually trying to wipe the windshield but sometimes just asking for money. when we were younger my sister and i were bothered by this. now, one of my biggest regrets is that, when hurrying to the subway, i didn't stop to give something to the fellow who'd announced that he'd come uptown to make the price of a bootle; no nonsense about soup or coffee. dad would have been disappointed in me.

Yeah, the alcohol thing used to bug me, too. But then I realized... who am I to judge, really? Sometimes I like a drink. Sometimes a I need one. And my life is a lot better than someone on the street. Why is it okay for me but not for them? Yes, yes. Addiction. So what? My not handing them a couple of bucks isn't going to help addicts. Pushing for decent social services will do that. And, hell, addicts need to drink; alcohol withdrawal is often fatal. Even homeless shelters here in Ottawa will provide a cup of wine to keep people from having DTs. I just usually make sure to hand the guy a sandwich and a bottle of water with the change. Maybe a cup of coffee if it's cold out.

[Cyborg Girl]

Hmm. Never thought of it that way actually.

I would say that alcohol might be one of the things keeping a person on the streets, only... That's no longer quite true. Maybe it used to be the case, but these days even really freaking smart people have a hard time finding work.

Still, helping someone get drunk rubs me the wrong way. It seems like just giving up. We should be able to do more than that; if not as individuals, then as a society.