Homeless in San Francisco
USA | Saturday, 21 November 1998 | Views [553] | Comments [1]
The homeless are always a sight in this richest of countries. Today was Thanksgiving when most Americans go home to families, turkey and cranberry sauce. The shops are all closed and the city empty ... making the homeless more conspicuous than ever. In parks, on benches, pushing their supermarket trolleys or scavenging city bins, I wonder what stories lie in their lives?
It never seems to dull The American Spirit though. Three 'blind' people with white canes and sunglasses tap their way down the street towards us, and their hands were out long before we drew near. Later we saw them confidently striding home after a brisk days business, canes and sunnies hung up.
The bus driver explained how he'd been threatened with battery acid "but most routes were OK" and he simply avoided driving one or two of these dangerous routes, despite the additional danger money, which can be over 300%. Teaching is the same apparently. But in the Land of the Free, nobody finds this strange.
It has been a while since we last travelled seriously and trying to find old routines is quite unsettling, so very different from 'normal' life now.
Tags: people, homeless, capitalism, wealth, society, democracy, freedom
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