The homeless and the ignored

Not having traveled to the United States, or anywhere else for that matter, for a period longer than a few days, I was shocked when I find myself shocked at the state of people living on the street is.

A few months ago, I watched the Will Smith movie, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and was reminded of the harsh truth of homeless shelters, and then like most people around the world, huddled under the comfort of my blanket and forgot about it. I walked past a homeless shelter a few hours ago here in San Francisco and stood at the sidewalk across on the street to watch what happened.

There was a line of about 150 people that extended down the block. I felt ashamed looking at the line because it reminded me of the line that I had stood in while waiting to enter the David Letterman show while I was in New York. When I walked looked around the block to figure out where this shelter was, I was shocked at how closely situated it was to the Hilton and Hotel Nikko, where I was staying. Such close proximity yet such a great void between them.

So I took a walk around the block and saw what I would have seen on the average, random street in India or Pakistan. People huddling together to keep warm, asleep on the side of the sidewalks, people ruffling through garbage in search for anything that might help them to survive through the day. No family units or friends looking out for one another – every man, woman and child for himself.

I am continued to be in awe of how the most powerful and richest country on the planet, will not exert the wisdom to cure issues of poverty and education in its own backyard. I am not a politically inclined individual so I see things in a more simplistic manner and maybe that just makes me stupid, but for a country that boasts about reviving the quality of life in a country hundreds of thousands of miles away, it’s a wonder they don’t have a more concrete plan to take care of their own people.

It’s like when the Government of Pakistan increases its Defense budget, the people protest because we would rather that the government use the money on raising the quality of life, rather than spend it on safeguarding our borders. People aren’t the eminent threat to neighboring countries – policies and diplomacy (or lack there of) are.

If I talk about how troubled I get to see the US from the perspective of the grassroot level in the various cities with people, they are quick to tell me that I don’t know what I am talking about because I am just getting a superficial look at the situation. I’ve spent several weeks here and I would imagine that my expertise as a writer does enable me to be quite observant and open to these experiences

You can smell the poverty and misery through the air as you walk down certain alleys and streets. And those streets are the ones that don’t have the Body Shop scents aerating the environment. In country’s such as mine, the slums are in pockets around the city, but you wouldn’t walk through those unintentionally. The lower economy I passed through today was something I stumbled through. It is a place that has fit itself into the make up of the community. One block away from the tourist destinations. So close, yet so far.