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Misc.Friday, January 13, 2006
Plight of the Homeless
Good Day America.
For most of us It's a bright new day and it doesn't come to mind quickly that there are people in our communities who are homeless and unhappy. They kind of melt into the surroundings and are often overlooked. We know that if they are sleeping under newspapers on a city street, they can't be comfortable. Sometimes a homeless person is living in a car, cleaning up at a gas station rest room, and going to work during the day. These people are just as homeless as those that live on the street, but they are not as easy to spot. One may have served your coffee at the local restaurant this morning.
Homelessness can begin with bad luck, drug or alcohol abuse, or illness. Whatever the cause, a homeless person needs help. Relieving the distressed is a fundamental rule of human society, but sometimes we forget.
A few homeless people have given up and become feral and prefer to remain homeless. Sometimes they just can't cope with rules. Sadly, relief efforts usually do not work very well with them. They make it a challenge to provide for their basic human needs in a way that attracts their cooperation and does not completely destroy their self esteem.
How to help.
Our Government is, one way or another, charged with protecting us all from inhuman conditions as well as from foreign enemies. It is important that the general society cares for those who can not care for themselves. It is the meaning of welfare. The way it is accomplished is often controversial, but in most cases humane assistance is not.
Government welfare has a long history of inefficient management and this suggests that, by itself, government welfare may not always be the best solution. Unfortunately, government interference in social problems tends to remove incentive and pride. Sometimes it even causes a homeless person to become dependent when the object is to make them "not homeless".
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