In response to the column by Gerry Wachovsky dated April 6th, I offer the following: Grow up!
We live in the United States of America and the last time I checked every American had the same rights. This includes homeless ones.
Golf is a game, the library is a resource and human beings are our fellow citizens. It is unfathomable that we would demand “government-issued homeless identification cards”. Would we demand gay identity cards, race identity cards, fat cards, skinny cards, drug cards or “I’m just your typical bigot” cards?
Also, suggesting that all homeless people are mentally ill, drunk or drugged-up is just plain dumb. I run a shelter for the homeless in Indiana; 72 people slept there last night. Only 10 percent were mentally ill and nine children and their families were unemployed or experiencing foreclosure. Twenty percent were victims of domestic violence and another 10 percent had addiction issues.
Get a clue, Gerry. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you or your friends. The Wendy’s restaurant is open to the public and that public does, indeed, include American citizens living without housing.
Direct your anger where it needs to be. The government should help but it is woefully underbudgeted. You perpetrate government inactivity because people like you make elected officials believe there is apathy toward the homeless. The United State’s Department of House and Urban Development after 30 years still has the same scope of action because as one official put it: “if we ever admitted the true scope [of the department] there wouldn’t be enough money to address it.” So, the government, like you, chooses to label, spout off and do very little — in a real way — to address America’s homelessness problem.
The Westboro Baptist Church just victimized the family of a soldier dying for his country. Get angry at that, it is more manageable. Homelessness exists because people like you think the way you do.
Take some time, let your legislators know why you want something done and then contact Michael Stoops or Neil Donovan at the National Coalition for the Homeless: 202-462-4822. We need voices but from those who understand the atrocities committed against the homeless, not those willing to commit them. Please educate yourself further, and understand there are people who can help those who need the help. Find out who they are; pass their cards out. You are then giving a “hand up” and not a hand out.
-Barbara Anderson,
Executive Director, Haven House Services, Inc.
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for comments made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for comments made on this Web site. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech.