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So when I run in the mornings it is usually towards Downtown LA. Roughly 6 blocks from my house at the Olympic/Vermont intersection is a bus stop. In the past as I've run by, I get really sad because there is a homeless women who sat underneath the bus shelter at that corner. She is surrounded by all she has in life... a few blankets, newspapers, some empty food wrappers, and a bunch of cigarettes. Her teeth chatter, she looks lonely... she is alone. I cringe every time I run by her because I feel bad that I'm not helping somehow. I even have thought about bringing a granola bar with me each time I head that way, but I never do. And she doesn't necessarily go unnoticed because two of my roommates know exactly who I'm talking about... which is sort of comforting on some bizarre level. At least her presence is recognized... i don't know if that helps or hurts... perhaps it will help as soon as i figure out what to do....
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So, anyway, this morning I went running that same way. I get about a block away and recognize something different about the scenery. There's no bus shelter. They took it away... THEY STRIPPED THIS WOMAN OF HER HOME. Now, when it rains, she has nothing protecting her. Several of her things are gone. She is sitting up against the wall of the nearby building... more vulnerable than before... (I didn't even think that was possible.) I saw an article about either San Bernadino or Santa Barbara police starting to strip these bus shelters so as to clean the streets of homeless people. But I didn't think it was really going to happen.
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Nor did I think it would ever hit me this hard.
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I was genuinely crushed when i saw that sight this morning. I don't know what to do. How can an institution which claims "to protect and serve" strip someone of something so valuable? It's a bus shelter for God's sake. She's not going to leave that spot because they get rid of the shelter. She's homeless. Good. God. Why couldn't the police give her resources? Why couldn't they drop her off at the Union Mission downtown? I feel like maybe I give humanity more credit than it deserves. I'm angry. I have some minimal ideas as to how I could help... but the systems that be are so jacked up that I feel as though I have no power. No room to talk.
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As it was mentioned at our Mid-year JVC Retreat, I pray that I remain naive enough to believe that I can still change the world.
1 comment:
hi, friend.
maybe this is your cue.
maybe you're the one who drives her to the mission, or at least rides the bus with her there and covers her fare. maybe you're the Christ the police (and God knows who else) have tried to take away from her.
you can change the world, and you will. maybe it won't be hers, maybe it will.
you have every right to be angry; something would be up if you weren't. while the systems suck, they are still there, and some of them can still help, even if for a day.
i love you, friend, and think of you often.
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