[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

It's time to repeat the story of my college days. I was living in Boston, in a studio at the foot of Beacon Hill (the uber-wealthy section of the city, where the governor's mansion is located). School (Emerson College) was down the street a few blocks, and I walked or took the T everywhere. I had two part-time jobs, plus I was a busker. A street musician. Subway performer - not a beggar, not poor - but accepted by the "underground culture" of Harvard Square, Cambridge MA. Most of them were homeless, but there were a few folks who shared apartments, one guy lived with his parents, and a few had their own places because they had good jobs or their parents paid for it.

At the end of one particular day, some of the homeless people invited me to THEIR home - the cemetery two blocks away. I went, and they shared the food they had bought with what they'd acquired through panhandling, and we passed around a couple quarts of Miller (blech but it's the thought that counts), and I slept in a beat up sleeping bag next to a wino who had his own blanket and pillow. We were up past midnight talking about life, experiences. A couple of the folks were drug addicts and one was having an unpleasant experience with drugs that night, but they gave him his space and he zoned out without incident.

I can't say I'd ever want to be homeless, and I'm not sure I'd want to make a vacation out of sleeping in graveyards. But it opened my eyes to the experience, and gave me some empathy I hadn't had prior to that.

Perhaps because I actually DID "walk in their shoes" for a day, I'm able to be a little less judgmental about the concept of homelessness. For those "christians" who choose to judge - remember your catechism or bible lessons or whatever you folks get when you're kids.

Does this make me naive? Nope. In fact, it makes me a little more experienced and "enlightened" than you. It gives me the "street cred" that you apparently lack. I know when I see an addict, and I can tell when someone actually needs money to survive and is down on his luck, and when someone is doing just fine and is trying to scam me out of my money.

As for the guy eating the McDonald's burger - I actually watched an Sonic Employee hand out bags of food to each of the three people with signs - one at the Walmart driveway corner, one near the Dollar store, and one at the driveway across the street where McDonald's is. Seems minimum wage employees are more generous than wealthy old people. Not surprised. A little disgusted, but not surprised.

Everybody knows (at least the enlightened ones know) that the BEST vacations are spent just walking the earth and sleeping in graveyards. They were my favorite vacations from age 25 to about 50 - just hitchhike to a state far away or take a greyhound and then walk or bike back. See the earth up close, baby!