my heart is breaking, bleeding..and surprisingly it's not because Joe is sitting at Midway right now waiting for his flight. We went 290 E. and got off on Cicero. Immediatly there are people standing on the street begging for money with homeless signs. Go a few blocks further down and there is this old man looking all twisted up standing IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET just looking lost. I'm not a bleeding heart and I don't know if the guy really is a veteran but my gods. Isn't there SOMETHING that can be done? On one street corner alone I counted 10 people and most of them, I'd say 80 percent were old people.
I honestly can say I have never in my life seen anything like this before. I have never seen the "slums" that these people are living in/around and I got a taste of it today taking Joe to the airport. I mean, I knew we all know, we hear stuff and we never really *SEE* it for ourselves.
And then I get the cold hearted bitch in me comming out and I'm thinking to myself "Ok, how many of these people are drug addicts & drunks and worthless to society" and then the other part of me, the wants-to-be-a-bleeding-heart, says "Maybe he really is a vet. You've heard the stories about some folks who come back from wars..." Or the "Maybe his company laid him off, he lost his house, his wife his kids. You shouldn't judge them or question them, your lucky you had *TWO* jobs and Joe to fall on when you got laid off..."
Now I understand why Gramma (MomI's mom) has started her missions and her homeless shelters... And I also understand how she has nothing herself practically because there are those that are crooks, drug addicts and drunks. But how can you tell them apart? How do you KNOW the difference...who to help and who NOT to help?
Joe said that was nothing, that's just a taste of the homelessness in Chicago. That he's going to take me down Lower Wacker and let me see for myself the TRUE homeless epidemic of Chicago.
And on a side note, why are they all black? Is it the neighborhood we were in? I didn't see 1 white person all that time standing on the side of road begging for money. HOWEVER, I did see white people. Just not looking like something the cat puked up... Saw a few hookers. One was being harassed by a cop...or was she harassing the cop?
So, we initially drove past Midway so he could show me where I can turn around easiest incase for whatever reason i miss my turn off and your never going to believe what happened.... a FUCKING FLAT TIRE. that damn blazer is a curse on me. This makes... 5 or 6 flat tires since i've been in posession of the damn thing. And now, you wanna know what little tricks its pulling on me now? It dies in the middle of intersections. YUP! It dies on me. Like this morning on my way to work it died on me.
But wait, who am I to complain? I have a job. I have a vehicle that for the most part gets me from Point A to Point Z and all the misc Points inbetween. I have a man that even if I didn't have a 2nd job to fall back on would *NOT* have left me because I was laid off. And I would not have kicked him to the curb either.
You've heard about those women, right? Husband has a job, she's too lazy to work. Husband gets laid off due to cutbacks and she leaves him and takes the kids with her. NOW! He has to pay childsupport and alot of the times alimony. Stupid fucking bitches. If you loved the man enough to marry him and have his kids why are you leaving him at the lowest point in his life? WHORE!
OK! back to my original topic of the post... I'm going to let him take me to Lower Wacker. Probly do it when I pick him up from the Airport... I don't know.. Do I *REALLY* want to see that? Sigh.
I've seen my fair share of a homeless PERSON UNO ONE at a time on the side of the street with thier sign(s)... HELL! I've even seen em on the off/on ramps near my dad's house on to I-40 back home. But I have never in my life seen so many at once. And they were all so old. There was a few younguns, they looked to be about in thier mid twenties, probly too fucking lazy to work. There are still day labor companies aren't they?
All the things I've taken for granted... the roof over my head, the food in my belly. Heat to keep me warm and air conditioning to cool me down... and most importantly the man who loves me. And the fact that even tho it is a peice of shit, my damn blazer, atleast i'm not having to walk or take a bus back n forth to work because I don't have a vehicle.
From the last few years of volunteering a bit with a homeless shelter, it has become abundantly clear that the real intractable homeless problem is due to one - or some combination - of (a) alcoholism (b) drug abuse (c) mental illness (d) some catastrophic personal disaster (major accident/illness/family break up).
ReplyDeleteIn the absence of (a) to (c) above, there don't seem to be a lot of people who are long term homeless.
Oh, and by the way, a couple of years ago, I took my mother out to Midway for her flight and got accosted by the woman with the 4 kids giving me the "car broke down, can you give us bus fare" story. I gave her bus fare (for her and her family). Two weeks later I went back to pick Mom up - same lady, same 5 kids, same story. I din't give her bus fare. I did say "I already gave you bus fare, why didn't you get on the bus and go home?" She looked kind of puzzled, such that it was clear that she didn't remember the guy who helped the week before when "her car broke down" and that that was just her regular gig of begging.
I didn't see that lady, but there was a group that could have been a family standing under one of the overpasses. Thankfully they were gone when I was going through alone. Guess the cops finally ran em off?
ReplyDeleteI can't see how a family member or friend or SOMEONE doesn't come down there, get the person and try to help them? Maybe those that have tried gave up...
SEE! It's stuff like this that makes me want to go into social work. I want to talk to people, I want to know thier life and history. I want to try and help them (those that can be helped and lock up the drug addicts and drunks in a locked facility somewhere away from the cold streets til they can be helped). I've always dreamed of being a psychiatrist but on the criminal end, your muderers and rapists, getting inside thier head. Think: "Silence of the Lambs" I wanna be Clarice. Always have since before I could remember and especially after watching the movies... And yes I understand that realife is NOTHING like the movies.
It's just where I'm called to. I want to do something with my life not just sit behind a desk 9-5 pushing the corporate grind. Something to make a difference, be a teacher, do social work... I just need to get out and make it happen and be the person I want to be.