Becoming Disposable
The state (RI) that can't decide on the morality or legality of indoor prostitution and a city (Providence) that is still working on an ordinance that does not allow minors to work strip joints, can't find a way to assist these few homeless a place to live. Energy better spent getting them a place to live instead of ordering them out of here and there. If a convicted felon can be offered a livable wage, why can't these homeless find a home?If the state can pay judges more in retirement than out of retirement, why can't the state find these people a home? Since when were people disposable? Who shames who? Cities and towns are sympathetic but every time these people are discussed, officials and neighborhood "committees" insist upon talking about protecting "society" as if these people were a threat to their society and not a part of it. We sympathize with them, but...
There seems to be no mention of finding them normal shelter, just discussion about their eventual leaving somewhere else as the tent city grows. The police speak of a couple of "incidents" as if the rest of "society" which these people came from does not. There always seems to be a clause of some kind making exceptions because they are homeless. The cue word is. "but."
Some of these people work, others are laid off, and some work part-time, they pay taxes, they purchase food where they can, they keep the area as livable as they can under the circumstances yet, officials and neighborhood groups speak of them as outcasts and not part of the society they speak of. Where did they get the right to determine who is and who is not part of society? Couldn't people show some solidarity with them and call upon resources that do exist to get these people off the street? Some of that money from overpaid politicians would be helpful. None of them look like they have missed a meal.
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