To be counted means that you are a human being with a name. You may be homeless, dirt poor, challenged by hygiene, shunned by family and friends, living handout to handout, sleeping on borrowed couches, on shelter cots, in the back seats of cars, under bridges in sleeping bags, but you will be counted.

To be counted means someone cares. In the Spokane region this week and in North Idaho next week, volunteers are fanning out to find homeless people and ask them their names, ages and time spent homeless.

To be counted means accountability. A community has a moral duty to care for its neediest citizens, and it takes reliable numbers to receive Washington state homeless assistance funds. But in the counting, the task moves beyond just the practical.

To be counted means to understand intuitively – no matter your religious beliefs or lack thereof – the New Testament verse Luke 12:7: Even every hair on your head has been counted. Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows. To be counted means to understand the anguish of those who have not been counted at all – or discounted in horrific ways. How many Iraqi civilians have died? How many children have died of AIDS in Africa? How many men and women were slaughtered in Rwanda and Darfur or in South Africa under apartheid? How many became “the disappeared” in Argentina in the 1980s?

To be counted is to be remembered. On the anniversary of Sept. 11, families of victims recite the names of the dead aloud in ceremonies that, after six years, still evoke tears. Holocaust historians strive to this day to uncover the most accurate count of the victims, to counter the Holocaust deniers who diminish the numbers. We count victims to remember history’s horrors, in the hope horrors won’t be repeated.

To be counted means to be counted in. A community measures its economic health by numbers. The number of construction starts. The number of new jobs. The homeless count is a community indicator, too. And it can become a community building exercise, because stories are exchanged among volunteers and homeless persons.

At the end of the process, we’ll have a more accurate accounting of how many are homeless in the Inland Northwest. We will have numbers, but we’ll also have a better sense of how the homeless came to be this way.

Homeless individuals should find the nearest count station and provide the requested information. People should encourage any homeless individuals they know to get counted. Tell them it matters, because it does, not only as a matter of economics but also of human dignity.