I’m Starting to Freak Out

Is the title of this Great piece of quality writing

on the subject of homelessness. These are the opening paragraphs but please go read the rest, it is chilling and moving;

So I’m driving along this afternoon, when I hear on the local talk radio about how global warming has been “debunked,” then some caller bitches about the Democrats in Congress using health care money to give out “free abortions,” and how Democrats are thus the ones responsible for wrecking the economy by depriving it of more consumers.

I’m so pissed off I nearly hit a homeless guy. I recovered myself, but then nearly hit another homeless guy. I stopped at a light, confused, watched the street teem with wandering, scuffed-looking people.

just in case you are still here and not over at Daily Kos reading the full piece here are a couple of comments that are worth repeating:

I never saw homeless people living on sidewalks until St. Ronald got into office. Somehow we changed our national ethos from “we’re all in this together” to “sink or swim.” Homelessness is a national disgrace, and it signals our failure as a nation to care for our own.

and this, originally from the Chicago Tribune provides some frightening context:

Network of nonprofits stretched thin with winter approaching

It’s a lagging economic indicator of the harshest kind. Even as the recession begins to wane, a growing suburban homeless population may be facing a long, cold winter, with little or no room at local emergency shelters.

Crowded and underfunded, suburban shelters turned away an increasing number of homeless last year and already have done it this year even though temperatures have been above normal since October, the traditional start of shelter season.

“We’re bracing ourselves, we’re preparing ourselves for it to be worse,” said Cathryn Perfetti, director of McHenry County PADS in Woodstock, which last winter saw twice as many homeless people as beds at some of its nine shelter sites.

With foreclosures and job losses hitting even the most affluent communities, some of the people seeking shelter are far from street savvy and having to cut them loose is particularly painful for shelter personnel.

There is nothing that I can really add to this.