Specific American cultural values that underlie both the cause and treatment of homelessness in the United States are hard to identify right away. I think it is a collaboration of societal thinking as a whole. (I am choosing to leave poverty and drugs out of this essay)
In one aspect of that, it is simply put that most of society disregards that it is a problem, or even an existing condition. Basically they are denying that fellow human beings do not live the same way they do, or perhaps accepting this and pushing it far into their peripheral vision as possible. This is because they are wrapped up on their lower or upper middle-class, or even upper-class “Society.” They live as a part of society as they view it and homelessness as a different part of society, one that is easily ignored because it may be widely believed that the charitable, church and the selfless will take care of it. Also, it is easier for them to live their lives pretending this situation doesn’t exist. The Specific cultural value I would pin-point right there is “tunnel vision” or turning a blind eye in regards to a mainstream selfishness.
Another aspect of this, and where I get this opinion from is that I have spent a lot of time talking with homeless people in Utah and traveling thru Utah. I have made several homeless friends and when fate sees fit it guides us into running into each other every couple months or so. They are happy the way they live their life and don’t want to follow our governmental societal structure. So in that case they are idealists, some radical, some not. However, there is the section of homeless people I meet that seem to be a little different, with a different view on government and society that most and even I would call a little crazy. It does not demean them as a human being though.
The latter of the two described above are the ones that need our help and reformed governmental programs to assist better and acclimate them to society whether it be jobs, living quarters or even basic mental health care, in-patient or out-patient.
I have spent the night alone, on the streets before. In my young age life was too much for me to handle at the moment and I needed the open air and silence of solitude to think. When sunset came I ventured from the streets and up to a small hiking area in Provo, with the fleeting sunlight I found my way off the beaten path, and up. There was a small plateau in which I chose to sleep that night, and actually the next night as well. It was there where I fell in love with the solitude in nature.
I have thought about leaving society many, many times before and becoming a gypsy. If not for my dog, who is dependent on me there are times where I have come very close to doing just such a thing. It has actually come to help me accept staying part of society (College, house, kids, mortgage, insurance…) knowing that I have an out if I ever decide to go down the road less traveled. I also feel the increasing pressure because the window for me to do such a thing is slowly but steadily closing.
Technically I would be considered homeless, but would I really be homeless or would I be joining a culture of Gypsies, hippies, rubber tramps, leather tramps a vagabonds… where the open road and the open air is my home? I can almost smell the fresh mountain air. I can almost feel the freedom that comes along with such a journey, such a miraculous life I could lead traveling, learning, meeting new people and marveling at the simple beauty of this world in the larger and even the most minuscule things. I would stay at Zen Centers, and hippie communes along the way finding small miracles in people and places and reveling in the pure beauty of the earth.
So in that aspect is anybody really homeless? It’s all a take on how each person views the world, what culture they associate themselves with, what life they are trying to lead, if they are homeless because of poverty, drugs of by choice, if they are happy or if they need a helping hand. It is up to the people I mentioned earlier in this essay to break the cultural lines we have created between the ones with homes and the ones without, show a little selflessness and talk to those who ask for money for a bus ride. Who knows, they might actually be trying to get to someplace that they can call home.
-Jacob Grant Gabriel
Copyright 2010
Questions? Comments? Email me at Hippie2012blogspot@hotmail.com
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