By Cheryl Smith
I was in tears as we were driving home from a Juneteenth celebration last weekend.
Silent tears. I was crying inside. You know? Like the tears of a clown.
A smile on my face but deep inside the pain was tearing me to pieces.
We saw what looked like a corpse on the sidewalk.
Other cars passed by and one driver honked the horn, but kept on going.
There was no sign of life, no movement at all.
Wondering if the person were alive, Stewart stopped the car and walked over with a bottle of water and began talking.
I saw the woman raise her hand to take the bottle and I breathed a sigh of relief. She was alive.
She sat up and Stewart came back to the car to get a bag of chips and I said, “I wish we had something else to give her.”
He talked to her for about another minute and then he returned to the car.
My sadness turned to anger. How could we live in this world and tolerate all the suffering?
It was scorching hot and the thought that she had to live with the elements was very disturbing.
A few miles north of where we were, there were many more however I didn’t see any stretched out.
Was I comforted by that observation?
Not by any stretch of the imagination.
All I could think is that WE ought to be able to fix this!
It is somewhat comforting to know that there are people making a difference, finding solutions to the homeless epidemic in the City of Dallas.
Still others would say I am using too strong a word; that homelessness is not at epidemic proportions.
Well say that to the thousands who use cardboard for shelter in heat and cold.
I guess we can applaud reports that show a decline in the homeless count in Collin and Dallas Counties.
The callers reaching me in my office are telling me to not believe the hype!
When you consider that four years later the U.S. Census shows an undercount of close to a million; well there’s clearly a mathing issue in America!
Recently one advocate expressed dismay upon hearing that Dallas officials went so far as to say the homeless veteran issue is no longer an issue.
What a happy time it would be if all homeless people had a place to call home; where they were treated with respect and dignity.
For our veterans, for anyone, we should be doing better and we must support those who are in the trenches working to right a very wrong situation.
Everyone deserves the very basic needs to enjoy a healthy, productive lifestyle.
And we wonder why folks get upset and don’t want to vote when they hear about resources being sent from America to other countries when Americans are in need of assistance.
Make it make sense!
