I don’t understand the homeless

Call me what you will

But I just don’t understand staying in the city if your homeless

 

I also never understood why people in the ghetto would choose to stay there.

 

If they want food it only makes sense to go to the woods or the beach

 Anybody can find a library, look up a map and decide where to go.

 

Each day they could walk 5 to 10 miles toward their destination

while still continuing to ask for food from people

 

when they get to the woods life gets easy,

or even the beach.

 

 If they were to ask someone for 30 feet of fishing line and a hook

 instead of food for 1 meal

they could feed themselves

 

in the woods there are all sorts of things to eat

even at the lower end

they can break apart a rotting tree and eat the grubs

 

If you get real hungry

you can take apart a bag of trash

and put some of the rotting food in the middle of the road

wait in the woods for a car to hit a coon

 

Who among us that came from poverty hasn’t eaten fresh road kill

Or dug grubs out of a piece of wood

If you haven’t than you weren’t really hungry.

 

Homelessness might not be a choice for everyone

But it is for many of the homeless people.

 

The mentally ill, alcoholics and drug addicts

Are in a position

Where homelessness is understood

 

The alcoholics and drug addicts make a choice to use

But the addiction is still intense

And it is understandable that they live on the streets in the city

 

The mentally ill

Really don’t have a choice

 

The people that I just don’t understand are the ones that lost their job

Or they lost their apartment

And they continue to live on the street

And while I’m on this topic

The people in the ghetto

Or the projects

That believe they can’t get out.

 

This is America

I’ve lived with addicts

I’ve been homeless

I studied and conserved my money

And I made a conscious decision to change my situation.

 

What the homeless people need

Is education

Not just free food

And I’m not talking about shoving Christianity down their throat

in order to get a meal

 

I’m talking about making them sit through

Mini seminars on survival training

Rain Water collection

How to make a fishing pole out of a branch and some line

Edible plants

 

Last but certainly not least

Anybody can get a student loan

Well anybody that isn’t a criminal

And criminals don’t count

With the student loan option there should be a required class

20 hours of training on how to make the most out of your money

How to make it last

And how to save or invest what is left over

 

There are options

This is America

 

If you want something

Than do something about it

 

If we could get the homeless people

that weren’t addicts and alcoholics in to

education programs

even if student loans were involved

the extra tax dollars that they create

might help to take care of the mentally ill

then the people that pass by homeless people on the street

would know that the only ones left were the addicts and alcoholics

 

this could result in several things

either people wouldn’t give them money

because they knew that they would buy drugs with it

further increasing drug sales

which brings danger to their neighborhoods

 

or

 

people would see the massive numbers of addicts and alcoholics

and would be inspired to try and create programs to help them

 

Poverty is a choice

The only solution

Is education

 

It is a long hard road to get out of poverty

And unfortunately the children pay the price for their parents choices

Anybody at any time

Can lose their job

The country can go in to a depression

These things happen

 

And recovery can take time

But to just sit on a sidewalk

And expect others to feed you

Is ludicrous

 

I gladly help people when I can

Those of you that know me know that

But I’ve been on the streets

And I’m no longer there

 

Why, you ask?

Because I chose to change my situation

This is America

We have that option