Random Output
(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)
Young Oklahoma mother; age 18, penniless, stranded in Imperial Valley, California. (Circa March 1937)
Homeless for Christmas:
12/27/2008
It's December 23rd, two days before Christmas and this was going to be a good day. I work second shift but was taking the first half of the day off. A old high school friend, one of my best friends was in town and we were getting together for dinner at a local joint known for a folksy atmosphere and good food at a good price. We talked about old times and caught up on where we were in life. Eventually he had to get back to his wife and I went home to burn a hour or so surfing the net and getting ready for work.
I'm a security guard, not a bad gig that you can make work for you. Like every job there are days that stink, days your bored beyond senseless, the good days and the occasional day that is golden. This was a close to golden day, it had warmed, almost nice for late December and only 4 hours long.
Right next to work is a storage rental place. Across the road and just down the street is a apartment complex. 8:00 PM rolls around and it's the sort of dark night you get in December, yet I spot someone cutting across the edge of our lot pushing a shopping cart loaded to the brim. Eyes open I slide up to this guy and ask him what going on. He was someone I've never laid eyes on before. His cart is filled with household items and from his manner and speech he was greatly stressed.
He told me he had just been given notice from the Sheriff's Dept. he was being evicted from his apartment in the morning. What could I say, this is a guy truly down and almost out. I asked him to keep a low profile as my boss wouldn't like him cutting across our lot and let him go to his business.
Out in the dark the mind wanders and I mulled this man's circumstance. Some might not know that 6 years ago I was homeless myself. After moving to New York the relationship that took me there fell apart. I had just began working at a small shop and was frankly living hand to mouth. Their kindness to me, almost a stranger saved me from falling into the abyss. So I understood where he was, what it was like to truly have your back up against the wall.
He left and about 40 minutes reappeared, his girlfriend just ahead of him. After talking with them for a moment I shared that I too, was once homeless and helped him get his cart down the hill. It was his last run before the storage place closed. His lot was indeed desperate. A friend with a truck never showed, he was being forced by circumstance to leave his few belongings to be thrown away come morning.
I decided to help him to help this guy for several reasons. In part empathy, knowing too well what he was going through. In part the Paine quote "If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately". In part it was a part of the Book of Mathew 25:45 "Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." In part it was Compassion, the second of Buddhist's immeasurable quality's.
So after work I drove my truck over to his apartment and we loaded his stuff, hauling it to his friends place so he wouldn't have to lose it. On the trip he told me a bit of his story. It's rather typical these days. He had a job but couldn't get full time hours at the store where he worked, the hours slowly went down and the money got tighter and tighter. Stuff unloaded he would stay there a week or so while he figured out what was next.
So why am I telling you this?
Most of us here just put a lot of effort into putting a change of direction as far as our leadership goes. I for one feel it was effort well spent and believe Obama can accomplish a lot. That said this isn't time to wash our hands of it and wait to be rescued. Change isn't just one person, change is a whole lot of us deciding to do something. It's time to turn away from trickle down, shopping to look outside of ourselves.