What would YOU do? (Homelessness)
This is another one of those issues that proven to be an easy political ping pong ball with no real AND LASTING solutions. I am at a point right now where every time I hear a politician exclaim that he/she is going to end homelessness, I just want to gag. Why? Because just about every honest person knows that politics in of itself is not a proven vehicle to take on such a task. We just like to hear such declarations because we want to believe that we are not as shallow as the next person. After all, who would vote AGAINST such a task? This mentality has proven to be just as effective as a person eating a whole pizza with the works and finishing it off with a diet soda thinking that they has made some improvement to their health.
I have also come to the conclusion that in many cases, the homeless in America exist only to satisfy the lack of self-worth in the lives of people who have managed to keep their head above water. Like the diet soda/pizza scenario, we foolishly toss our pocket change into the hands of the homeless thinking that 50 cents, a dollar, whatever is going to push them one step closer out of their predicament. Why is it that in wealthy cities like San Francisco or Santa Monica, CA the homeless population has not decreased in decades? Because the folks in these cities (and other like them) know that despite “pocket change” benevolence or increased government programs, there are deeper issues that need to be addressed.
For me, BlackInformant.com is an online journal of my thoughts that I am compiling for posterity sake. When I am dead and gone, I want my kids to know just how dear ol’ dad thought on the issues of my day. Not only that, I want to establish for them some kind of roadmap to develop effective solutions for their generations. Just as I did with the post-Katrina situation (which I am unable to find at this time. it might have been lost when I switched hosting services. I’ll continue to look for it. In the meantime, this is about as close as I am going to get.), I would like propose the following scenerio to you:
You have just been elected the mayor of a small town with a mixed demographic of low/middle class citizens. One of the biggest problems facing the town that you will be representing is homelessness. How would YOU fix that situation?
This is a simple exercise that I challenge myself on a regular basis on a variety of issues. It’s easy to criticize government for not doing enough, but have YOU ever thought about a real solution to this issue?
In about a day or so I will post my two-cents on this issue. Some you may agree with, some you may not. Regardless, it will at least give you an opportunity to share your two cents on this issue as well. While none of us have all the answers, what we compile in this simple exercise will hopefully reflect an effective plan that someone out there can implement.
I think that churches need to do more. I recently started working at a Nazarene University and have found that they really get into the being a missionary thing here, locally and over seas. I just found out today that not only do they feed the homeless which allot of churches to. They often times have programs that clean and wash their clothes and provide a place for them to sleep. I think if more churches took this approach it would help the situation. I am not suggesting this as an end all be all, but I think this would help out. I think the next part of that would be to create programs to ge t homeless actual homes and jobs.
Comment by Octavious Butler | December 7, 2006