I'll never forget the time when one of my friends from the Dominican Republic came to visit. We were walking around New York City and a homeless person had kindly asked if we had any money. I didn't have any money so i told my friend if she could give him a dollar. My friend looked at me and said why would I give him a dollar when there are people like this in the Dominican Republic that she sees every single day. She then said that America is a rich enough country to support its people. What she did not understand is that these people did not choose to be homeless. She did not place herself in that person's shoes. There are homeless people in every single country. We cannot blame them for this. Yes, the US is a very rich country and I believe that it could do a lot more to help its homeless people.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Personal Experience: By Roy Flores
In my eighteen years of living, I have encountered many homeless people. Every time I see a homeless person I get a weird feeling inside. When I was younger I used to be afraid of homeless people. I used to think that if I came around them they would try to hurt me. I would always try to avoid homeless people because I knew they were going to ask me for money. I hated the idea of giving my money to a complete stranger. Of course, all of this was when I was much younger. To me, homeless people were not real people. They were beneath everyone and had no importance to society. As I got older I started to understand that homeless people were the way that they were, for various reasons. I began to understand that they were regular people just like me, who had come face to face with some difficult encounters.
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Roy, I couldn’t agree with you more! When I was younger I always used to think homeless people were a step below me or a few steps below me actually. I never really considered them to be members of society. As I got older I have learned that, like you said, some of the homeless population” did not choose to be homeless.” Unfortunately, it is the negative effects of society that has led homeless people to turn to the streets and beg for money for a living. I would feel guilty not giving the homeless people money when I was younger. I would always ask an adult to give them money but they would always tell me that the homeless person is not going to use that money for food, there would use it for drugs. I would always feel horrible walking by them too. It is a shame because most people don’t see homeless people to be “real people” like you said. Your friend is right, America is a wealthy country, but every country has its homeless people. We can’t just ignore them and pretend they don’t exist. Just because we are a rich country does not mean we can always support our less fortunate members of society.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand the feeling you had toward homeless people because there was a point in time where I was the same way. I was scared to be around homeless people and just the sight of them made me want to cross the street. That is not the way to live because as Catholics we believe that everyone is created equal and are not categorized by what they have or do not have. That is one of the greatest mistakes we as humans make we become so blinded by the material things that we forget to look within people. As for your friend, I am also Dominican and I go to visit at least once a year and she is right. There are a lot more homeless people roaming around to the point where it becomes something normal to see in the streets. But the problem is that no matter where you are there will be homeless people all over whether it is the richest country or the poorest country.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it's sad to say that there are people out there who don't care about the homeless. Who look at them on the streets and don't put them in their shoes. Who say to themselves they deserve what they get. But God did not create this world to have people less than or higher than one another. Everyone is created equal in God's eyes and that is the way we should live. I use to be the same way when I would see homeless people on the streets. I would feel very uncomfortable. But as I got older I realized that I shouldn't treat them as monsters because they are regular people. They just have unfortunate issues they have to face. I think all kids at first are afraid when they see a homeless person on the street. Their first reaction is scared. But as we get older we realize that they are nothing to be scared of.
ReplyDeleteIts sad that many people overlook homeless people. The homeless are normal people just like all of us. They have just gone through way more than most of us, maybe just dont have the luck that most of us have. When i was younger i would also ignore the homeless people, sometimes laugh at them, run away, thinking they were going to do something bad to me because that was my first instinct. Now i think so different and the older ive become i have realized how sad what is going on is. I remember when i was little and i would see my mother and father give the homeless people money in the streets, or give away clothes, and i would never understand why they were doing that. I would sometimes get mad and say "why are you giving them things, they are bums and lazy and dont want to do anything, they dont deserve it." Now that i am older i realize that they did not choose to be homeless it just happened to them, the most we can do is of course help, but also pray for them to overcome this problem.
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