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Old 08-03-2022, 01:42 PM   #6
SailinAway
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 8gv View Post
If services are provided to the homeless the homeless will come. . . . I wonder what life decisions were made by the guy on the curb and the owner of the camper that brought them to this status.
We have to imagine beyond what we think we see on the street. Many homeless people have some form of mental illness, which can also make them distrust doctors, medication, and government services.

I had a sad experience with this once. I saw a young man sitting on the sidewalk in front of Staples in Concord. He was dirty and unkempt and very thin. Dozens of people were walking by him without stopping. I did too, initially. When I passed by Staples again 30 minutes later, he was still sitting there. I stopped and asked him if he was OK. When he answered, his voice was so weak that I couldn't hear him and I had to kneel down next to him. He said he was hungry. His last meal was several days ago. I could tell from his speech ("word salad") that he had schizophrenia and was not medicated. I took him to Market Basket to get him some food. He was so weak from hunger that he walked very slowly. I asked a clerk at Market Basket if they would donate some food. They would not, so I paid for it myself. I bought as much as I thought he could carry. We sat at the picnic table behind Staples and he wolfed the food down ravenously.

About 50% of what this young man said did make sense. He talked about the abuse he had suffered in hospitals and from the police. I was unable to persuade him to go to a shelter or the nearby food kitchen, so strong was his distrust of institutions. He said he was sleeping in a nearby field. What struck me the most was his extreme gratitude for my help. He thanked me over and over again. It was heartbreaking to have to leave him there alone and without help. I didn't call the police because I knew that would only add to his suffering.

Schizophrenia is a biological brain disorder that causes paranoia, delusions, etc. It is not due to bad life decisions. People in our area should be familiar with the story of the 50-year-old schizophrenic woman, Linda Bishop, who was released from the state hospital in Concord with no plan for support---just put out on the street. She took refuge in an abandoned farmhouse on Mountain Road in the winter and slowly died of starvation over a period of weeks after subsisting for a while on apples she picked from a tree. The film about her is called God Knows Where I Am. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/god-knows-where-i-am/about/

If you watch that film you may go away with a different view of people you see on the street, and of our society. The difference between the young man at Staples and Linda Bishop on the one hand and you and me on the other hand is genetic, not moral. Truly, there but for the grace of God go you or I. Please consider stopping the next time you see someone like this. I know the hesitation of not wanting to give money to a drug addict or alcoholic, but we can ask if we can help in some other way, or at least acknowledge these people as fellow humans by looking them in the eye and saying hello. Don't take your cue from the people passing by them. Take your cue from what you would feel in their place and what you would want passersby to do.

Last edited by SailinAway; 08-04-2022 at 03:19 PM.
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