it takes a special kind of person to work with and for the homeless. it takes a particular kind of person to do it for no benefit of their own. there are some extraordinarily good people who work on behalf of the homeless and with the homeless on a volunteer basis. they are the front line, top shelf warriors in the fight against homelessness and they eventually will be one of the major factors that bring about that common goal we all share. their motives, agendas and actions are free from any political, economic, or employment gains or opportunities. they do it out of the goodness of their heart and to help and benefit their fellow man. it also takes a special sort of person to work at a mission or shelter. they have to deal with people under extremely difficult circumstances who are facing the toughest challenge of their life. they are dealing with people being homeless, people with alcohol and drug addiction, anger issues, mental illness, abuse, abandonment and other various issues....under one roof....at one time. for the most part most of the employees at the missions and shelters i'm aware of do a good job providing the relief and help that they should without damaging the fragile emotional state that most homeless people are in at any one given time. that in itself is an accomplishment.
there is another special kind of person that we encounter when you are trying to fight homelessness. these are the people who refuse to help the unemployed, the undocumented and the uninsured. these are the people that instead of helping, they continue to punish the people who can least afford to be the victims of that punishment. these people refuse to recognize that a large portion of the american people are suffering because of their refusal to do the right thing and stop letting naked politicism guide them. they are tossing the lives of 1.7 million unemployed americans and 11.5 million immigrant men, women and children around the political arena in a shameless game called election year politics. they are refusing to better the lives of 45 million americans living below the gvt. defined poverty line for the sake of partisan politics and conservative cow- towing to the ultra right tea party.
most of these issues would be hotly debated, voted on and re-voted until some sort of agreement, compromise or politically acceptable solution could be found. but because it's election year, the propositions and problems and solutions will be avoided and not dealt with until the election is over in november and any fallout from the decisions and positions taken can't hurt the total number of seats in the congress and senate of either party. that is shameless, cowardly politics and we all pay forit in the end.
yes...these are special people. they're politicians. it's one thing to seek an advantage at the election boothe. it's quite another to do it at the expense of so many millions of americans already feeling the weight of poor economic times and high unemployment. to create so many victims for a victory in the polls is unforgivable. yes, they are truly a special kind of people indeed.
to all of the employees and volunteers that help every day...thank you.
to all the politicians whose description fits in the above....i hope the american people thank you in november.
see you around town