Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Cause and Effect
Horrible story on the news. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving; warm fuzzy stories predominate. One bad story though. Six families stand on the sidewalk, kids and moms, evicted from the homeless shelter behind them, right out into that warm southern air...yeah, yeah, but it is sad. They cluster like a team in a huddle as a reporter intones, "Nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. Mothers and children sent into the cold at the 'warmest' time of year. How could it happen?" Really.

I'm upstairs lying on the bed in a spare room, watching a big-screen TV, all cozy and comfortable and just ashamed of it. "Lord," I pray silently, "why do I have so much and these have nothing? Should I call the police and volunteer to take them in?" Selfishly I cringe to think of all those huge fat people blobbing and flumping around my old frail house, but maybe that's what the Lord expects of me, and who am I to start scheduling the world? I go downstairs and start to tidy up, wipe out the sink, windex kitchen surfaces, put garbage by the door, fluff pillows. Back upstairs I put away this and that, vacuum here and there, set lavendar hand soap by the sink.

Now I'm back down watching TV and it's the homeless people again. Lined up this time, looking truculent, chins out. Reporter says, "It's hard to imagine how anyone could put these folks out at this time of year. We interviewed the head of the shelter here in Suffolk. She tells her side of the situation."

A beautiful and quiet-voiced person speaks, "We have learned over many sad years that compassion is not enough. In order to keep this facility on the map, we must live by hard and fast rules. As shelter personnel, we have high standards for ourselves. We must be quiet. We must be courteous, here and on time, willing to listen, clean and efficient. We keep the place sanitary and orderly. We provide necessary education and counselling to all those who must live here for a while. On the other hand, people using this shelter must abide by our rules. Those rules are; first, be respectful of shelter personnel and others living here. Second, use our services. When we schedule training, classes, counselling, we expect our clients to be there and pay attention. Then we expect our clients to use what they have been taught. The women and their children whom we have put out on the street have failed to meet any of those standards. They are extremely rude and disrespectful to everyone, even to one another. They do not attend classes. They ignore times for training and counselling. What we have managed to teach them, they do not use. Worst of all, they think their behavior is funny. They encourage one another to do the wrong thing and they laugh in our faces. They actively urge their children to break rules, to be loud, profane and vulgar. Many, many times they have been warned, 'What will happen to you if we need to put you out? What will happen to your children?' Anytime someone tries to reason with them along those lines, they immediately turn abusive, threatening. In short they have made this place mean, scary, loud, and hard to bear for the employees and for other clients living on the premises. After months of warnings and patience, they must now go somewhere else. Maybe a few nights out in the cold rain will do them some good. They need a reality check."

Well, honey, they sure aren't coming in MY house!!!!

Posted by doubledog at 11:11 AM | Post Comment | Permalink
Updated: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 11:23 AM

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