Hurrah and be aware!

I saw in the paper the other day, the news about another march. This time I said "Hoorah!" They were marching for the awareness or homelessness and hunger. I think that is a worthy cause. It goes beyond our selfishness to see the needs of others. Do I see a need to march to get others to become aware? Well...

I used to frequent a park that had become a refuge of sorts to homeless people. I used to think that they were all drunks or druggies who had brought this onto themselves and were a menace to society. I considered them lazy, scary, and dirty.

Then I met some homeless people. And some alcoholics. And some drug addicts. And some mental patients. I heard their stories. I saw their pain and their struggles.

I realized that these were regular people at one point in their lives. They had a family of some kind or another...they had at least one friend. They had potential. The had talents and gifts and abilities. And then...

SOMETHING HAPPENED! Sometmes it was early in their lives...children, even. Perhaps it was molestation, or beatings, or verbal assault of their very being. Perhaps it was as a young person with dreams and goals. A rape. A bad relationship that led to poor decisions. A mistake socially, or financially. A family rejection because of differences or decisions. Whatever happened, no one planned to become an addict. No child has that as their goal. And though their addictions began in most cases with a decision, they did not plan to be overtaken by this illness. And, as hard as it is to accept sometimes, it IS an illness. It is an illness of spirit and soul, of emotions and then of body as well.

A good friend of mine ended up homeless once. She was not an addict. Unless you, perhaps correctly, define being a smoker as being an addict. Yet, the pain of life and past abuse took its toll on her emotionally and physically, causing her to be unable to provide for herself. She was sleeping in her vehicle until she found a shelter to take her in. And that is all it was, a shelter...not much more. A bed, a small box for a "drawer", and a lamp. Food was available and they were able to help her get some assistance for medical attention. But she was not a typical addict, nor a mental patient, nor scary, nor dirty. Yet she was homeless!

I worked with a few churches in the past decade in poorer areas of town. I held in my lap little children with runny noses and dirt on their faces. They were hungry...for love and attention as well as for food. Some people, even church workers were reluctant to cuddle these kids for fear of getting some disease. I always thought people like that already had a disease...of their heart. While I am not advocating taking unnecessary risks, a simple hug and smile and a moment or two on a lap is not likely to give anyone an incurable disease!

Yes, let us march for homelessness and hunger awareness. Those are honest causes for compassion and anger and ACTION. I am not trying to belittle those who march for rights or for freedom to "marry" outside the norm. But I wonder how much thought they would give to their rights if they were homeless or hungry!

Here in my state, we voted also, for marriage to be defined as one man and one woman. I see no problem with that. No one was trying to undo gay relationships, the voters were just saying that the word marriage does not fit them. One campaign ad stated that marriage is for passing life to the next generation. I like that. I am not trying to comment on any gay couple's abiblity to parent children. I certainly question the abilities of MANY heterosexuals in that boat. But, to define "marriage" as the means to pass life from one generation to the next to me does not seem to apply in their relationships. Now, I realize that marriage is more than that and that many heterosexual couples choose not to bear children. There are legal advantages of marriage. However, I had a nephew whose wife came from an entirely different culture and who did not want the typical marriage yet all the benefits. It cost them a lot of money, but they were able to arrange legal papers to cover nearly all, if not all, legal benefits for their union. They had a ceremony that embraced both cultures and was honored by all. So, "marriage" as defined by the recent politics does not have to interfere with relationships of commitment.

As far as the tax benefits, well those can quickly change anyway. My husband and I file taxes separtely for financial reasons. One has to realize that there are tradeoffs in every culture and political arena.

So, let us march to make others aware of the plight of those whose lives are endangered. Yeah, right on! March on!