Let’s not turn our backs

Are we equating the homeless as a public “investment” choice with an inevitable destiny as a waste of taxpayers’ dollars? Let’s consider the probable causes, trauma bringing about despair, despondency, desperation.

Do you truly think there are those with an inherent disposition aspiring to homelessness? Most solutions offered by candidates for local elected leadership are framed by the limited view of how best to hide the homeless from sight. Where is our attention to prevention?

Let’s ask ourselves, “What must we do as a community to better understand the roots of despair rather than look down, point a finger and degrade this portion of our human family?” What policies and societal structures systematically provoke despondency? Most who have avoided this tragedy don’t want to get close enough to wallow in the dirt and dwell on the cold concrete long enough to hear the stories depicting life journeys leading to life on the street, so we cannot possibly imagine “choosing such a life” let alone commiserate compassionately.

Let us employ mechanisms to repair victimization, the inevitability of some humans’ inhumanity. Let’s find our courage and determination to listen and learn, to respond to this sad reality, reversing devaluation, lifting the defrauded with our inherent resiliency as human beings, restoration by way of empowerment to earn the comfort of a home.

Turning our backs on our brothers and sisters, hiding them from view, self-righteously relegating them to a compound for the worthless, we all will continue to pay a terrible price.

Vicki Hertz

Spokane