Two Worlds
Occupying a single space
Recently I arrived home very late at night following a meeting. As I went to turn into my driveway I saw whom I presumed to be a homeless man walking across it. He had a large bag swung over his left shoulder, and was carrying a club in his right hand.
A glance revealed a small group of like individuals further down the street that this man was obviously walking away from.
We have allowed, at least here on the West Coast of the United States, two very distinct worlds to grow, within the same space, but with no meaningful connection between them.
Late at night, me and mine are in our home, sleeping. Warm, dry, comfortable, and protected. Yet just outside our locked doors, this entire other world exists late at night. A world consisting of the mentally ill and the drug addicted. People who wander aimlessly in the darkness, seeking that which they are hopeless to find.
That world undoubtedly has its own rules and hierarchies. Systems that are likely as incomprehensible to me as my world would be to them. That theirs is a dangerous world; well my recent late night wanderer’s club seems to prove the truth of that.
Yet how can one people tolerate this double world?
How can Seattle’s utterly destitute share the exact same space with some of our planet’s richest individuals?
Are we not all born with value?
Evil masquerading as compassion has brought this about.
It is not compassionate to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to house one homeless person, because that leaves no money to house all the others.
It is not compassionate to accept large grants and salaries in order to work to end homelessness while allowing the homeless population to grow each and every year on one’s watch.
It is not compassionate to allow the mentally ill or drug addicted to slowly commit suicide on our sidewalks or in our parks.
It is not compassionate to call for more taxes, and rules, and regulations, all of which make the meeting of basic needs more unaffordable for everyone, driving ever more people into desperate circumstances.
Homelessness, mental illness, drug addiction, these are not insurmountable problems. Our society can solve them, if it is our collective will to solve them. A just society would do so, instead of simply acting as if we care.
Can’t get enough? Some of my favorite recent essays are collected on my LinkTree.
What is it called by some? The "Homeless-industrial Complex?"
In that the government has found another "cause" to build and grow more government revenue, more departments, and more bureaucracy? And now that the bureaucracy has been created, the "cause" that created it can never be solved, lest the bureaucracy will be ended?
The amount of fraud waste and abuse at every level is more than a little concerning. When privately run nonprofits operate more efficiently even with some offering excessive compensation it is more than time to have a conversation about balancing the books. We pay significant sums of tax dollars for public services and resources. We should at the very least see some meaningful benefit from it, or receive a reasonable response and solution to the situation.