(0728 Homeless in State College)
970 WBLF. I’m Wes Richards with some thoughts on the homeless.
New York's Ultimate Solution to the Homeless Problem is at last out in the open. Free one way tickets to somewhere else. Better, one would suppose than gas chambers, but could that be next?
What's more troubling than kicking the homeless out of the city? The idea will catch on and other places will start doing the same. Soon, we'll have homeless trading among municipalities.
Here in Central Pennsylvania, the homeless have learned to "pass." For those unfamiliar with the term, it means they comport and dress themselves so as to be taken for "regular" people. Either that, or they're all Anne Frank, living in attics or basements. Or shelters.
There are homeless shelters in this area: Bellefonte, Milesburg, Burnham, Huntingdon and Lewistown.
Bet you didn’t know that.
While the homeless of any large city are obvious… in places like here.. they are invisible.
But the per capita proportion appears to be about the same everywhere.
You never hear about people being rousted from sleeping in doorways, panhandling, or hanging out intimidating students and/ or townies.
But that doesn’t mean we’re without this problem.
Who are these people? One is a former professor who lived in his minivan and worked part time at a big box store until someone noticed his expired registration and had the car hauled away.
Where is he now? No one knows.
Another is a woman who used to make formal gowns until one day she was sent away for shoplifting thread.
Small incidents, for sure. But life changing for the people in the crosshairs.
Those are just a couple that I know about. How many don’t I know about… how many don’t YOU know about.
So while we all dream of a football paradise or a drinkers’ paradise or our cutsey-quaint community and patting ourselves and each other on the back for the splendid job we’re doing raising money for the hospitals or holding track meets for a hundred different causes, we should be looking for these invisible people, making those among them who want to be seen visible and providing more for all of them.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
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