I was floored this week by your outpouring of compassion for the homeless. It’s nice you finally learned we have women, children, and former military living on the streets in this country. Now before you will even consider allowing another immigrant to cross our boarder we first have to focus on finding homes for the half a million homeless that are already here. I’m overjoyed! I thought homeless was a choice. Wasn’t it just last week that you were all saying that people choose to be poor?
Every day I pass one to two hundred homeless on the way to the office. Most of them men, but many are women and children that I thought were exercising their right to be cold and hungry. I have no idea how many were former military. I’m not sure if anyone has asked them if they’re Christian. I just knew they had chosen to be there. In downtown Denver alone, hundreds line up each night to try and get a bed in the shelter. Many of them don’t like the shelters because they run out of beds so quickly, so I thought they “chose” to sleep in the doorways of buildings, or even trash dumpsters around the city.
Quite frankly, I was under the impression that many of the homeless children “chose” to hang out around the downtown skate parks during the day, and then beg for change as people exited the city for home. As it got dark, girls and boys as young as 5 or 10, look for a place to hide to keep from being raped. This is increasingly difficult for them as they often “choose” to be molested by perpetrators who turn out to be the clergy or even the police. Too often these children “choose” to fall prey to sex trafficers and pimps who they “choose” to let use their vulnerabilities and enter them into slavery or prostitution.
A lot of them “choose” to be mentally ill, or addicted to drugs. They “choose” to be poured out onto the street from hospitals and care centers that can’t afford to treat them. They even “choose” to be assaulted and often murdered by bands of criminals who make bets with themselves to see how many homeless they can beat in an evening.
So now that it’s not a choice, I’m excited to hear you tell me what is your plan to address the homeless situation? I’m waiting with baited breath to learn what you are going to do to ensure everyone has a roof over your head. What’s your plan to expand the social and educational programs needed to ensure we make homeless a memory? I want to know how you plan to fund mental health and drug rehabilitation programs, not to mention food stamps and affordable housing. This is so awesome!
Tell me please with your distaste for the poor and indigent how are you going to address all these issues? Just last week you were talking about how these programs were a drain on society for no other reason than people “choose” to be poor. What happened? When did these people loose their choice? How did they end up this way? I’m so glad you’re willing to make a difference. This is your time to show all the compassion you have in your heart for people in need. Are you ready to get working? Or are you just full of shit?
Rex