This article disturbed me in so many ways, that I don't know if I will be able to actually articulate well my thoughts on it, but I will try.
The basic theme of the news article, in case you really don't want to read it, is that Skid Row, the place where most homeless in Los Angeles "live", has become a dumping ground from other cities in Los Angeles County. I guess the idea is that we don't want them in our neighborhood, so let's send them to a place where they can hang out with other unwanted people or something.
I had the opportunity both in college and during my internship at a church in Tucson, Arizona, to spend several weeks down in the inner city of Los Angeles, with an organization called Center for Student Missions. One of the things we did every first night in L.A. was to pray for the city, and the CSM host would take us to different sites around the city and we would pray. We would always go to Skid Row, and it was amazing to see the multi-million dollar hotels and apartments just a block away from Skid Row. It was something that broke your heart. I remember one of my students asking a hotel concierge what they did about the homeless - what she was basically asking was "Does your hotel contribute to missions and programs that minister to the homeless?" What the concierge took her question as was: "How do you protect your hotel guests from these scary homeless people?" So he went on and on about the security procedures that they have, how they kick homeless people off of the street by their hotel very quickly, etc. It was disturbing.
Just typing this out brings to mind so many stories from those missions trips. I remember one morning we went into MacArthur Park, where a lot of homeless people slept. Right before we did this, we all bought breakfast and were pretty hungry after a long night of prayer and ministry. The host showed us all the homeless people and said, "Okay, now you can eat your breakfast. Or you can share your breakfast with people who possibly haven't eaten for days." So we went out and met people and heard heart-breaking stories. One man only talked about his young daughter and how he missed her. One of my students gave another homeless man her Bible. I firmly believe that although we helped a lot of people on those missions trips and everything, the inner-city missions trips helped us. They changed us. They made us realize that Jesus was out on the streets of L.A. They reminded us that Jesus didn't have a place to lay his head. They broke our hearts.
Another disturbing thing about the article was when they talked about the elderly people who couldn't afford care anymore in nursing homes getting dropped off in Skid Row. I remember a quote I heard a long time ago that basically said that you can tell a lot from a country by how they treat their elderly and their young.
2 comments:
Very sad article A huge problem with no easy answers I deal with homeless and the working poor 3 days a week at my hospital Alot of sad stories again with no easy answers Many times it's just listening and caring and trying to make those connections to resources which are scarce Many of them are very defensive and don't trust anyone As far as I know there isn't a "dumping ground" in Dayton ..there are homeless shelters "Other Place" St.Vincent,Booth House,Gospel Mission The sad thing is that many people live in their "own world" and don't choose to recognize there is a problem or think "there's nothing I can do about that "
It's easy for us to slip into ignorance about the world in which we live. Sometimes we forget how easy we have it.
As followers of Christ, I believe it is part of our mission to provide money and help to those who need it. All across the world the situation is horrible.
I had to read an essay on homelessness in America, for my English class, and it had the same effect on me as this article did. It is shameful how American in general treats those who aren't as blessed monetarily as we are.
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