Homelessness

As I sit here in the heated comfort of my little RV, drinking my cup of hot coffee at the computer screen.  I look out  my back window.  There is a man I see out this window.  He lives there in the brush under a Yucca Tree in this vacant lot next to the RV Park.  It's close to a public transportation bus stop which he uses every day to go somewhere.  Still, almost every night he spends it under the Yucca Tree in this lot.  He's got a shopping cart which he loving packs and unpacks every day with his possessions.  I sit here and think just how fortunate I am as compared to this gentleman.  Then as the old saying goes, "for the grace of God"  comes to my mind.

How many people are living like this I wonder at times.  I heard a commercial on TV saying there was 50,000 people living on the streets of Los Angeles.  The talking head on the TV tells me that more people are slipping into poverty than any other time in the last half century.  Then on the presidential debate, I hear a participant state we need to roll back the war on poverty in this country that was started back in the sixties by a democratic president.

I'm not poor, neither am I rich, I live on the edge and I'm sure there is many more just like me in this country.  I don't go hungry, nor am I cold at night.  Nonetheless, when I can observe it every where I've been across this country so far, I start to question the state of our nation.  I know friends and acquaintances who are struggling every day just to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.    Our so called leaders are out of touch, they really should come down from those ivory towers of government and walk the streets of our country.

Maybe I'm too soft, and maybe we should just tell everyone to buck it up, tighten your belt and find a job.  Pull your self up out of poverty, why this country is full of opportunity right?