Recently, a Fox News commentator, Jesse Watters, bloviated about the problem of homelessness in America. He said that the root cause was not the lack of affordable housing but that cities reward unhoused citizens by coddling and subsidizing their anti-social behavior. “It’s about drug addicts who want to wander around and live in tents on the sidewalk,” Watters continued.
“You have to stigmatize it,” he said. “You can’t make them out to be some sort of cutting-edge heroes. You have to call them what they are. These are people that have failed in life and are on death’s door.” So much for the compassion and real-world experience of Jesse Watters.
It’s often said, and I agree, that if you’ve met one homeless person, you’ve met one homeless person. I’ve shared a camp fire with homeless high-school dropouts, brilliant artists, genuine hero military veterans and PhDs. You never know what someone else is carrying. To assume you know is wrongheaded.
I have been homeless and I’m not a drug addict. Sure, I do know others who are. Why do the poor, the traumatized, the sick and the dying turn to street drugs? They don’t have access to adequate medical and mental health care or a warm dry place to rest their heads. They turn to drugs for the same reason everyone else does. They’re suffering and in pain, but they don’t have access to a doctor who will write a prescription for them. How many pain killers are in your medicine cabinet?
And as far as having failed in life, I view the day I stepped out of my apartment onto the street as one of my greatest successes. I guess it depends on what one considers success. I was poor trying to make a go of it in a society that denies that poverty exists. Those with a great deal of money prey on those of us who have very little. I was working two jobs and could barely afford my rent, let alone food. The jobs I had did not offer health insurance because they didn’t have to. When I fell and broke my arm, amassing tens-of-thousands of dollars in medical debt, I just knew I couldn’t continue to delude myself that the American dream was something I could believe in anymore. As a poor, aging, single woman, I couldn’t rationally believe I could keep up.
If Mr. Watters believes homeless folks aren’t already “stigmatized” enough, I think he should take a closer look. If his rant was just meant to add the homeless to the long and growing list of minority groups Fox viewers are encouraged daily to think of as unworthy of their care and compassion, and to drive a deeper wedge between the haves and have-nots so that the haves can feel even more entitled and superior — shame on him.
The homeless individuals I’ve encountered during my time on the street are, for the most part, some of the strongest, most courageous, thoughtful human beings you would ever want to meet. They have taken the repeated blows of an unjust society and are still finding a way to survive. I wonder if Mr. Watters and his Fox viewers could take that necessary first step out onto the street and bear up as well.
I am grateful for the year I spent homeless on the streets of America. I met some wonderful people I wouldn’t otherwise have met. I am grateful for the kind folks who eventually helped me get into a sustainable room of my own. I am grateful to everyone at The Contributor who gave me a job when no one else would. And most of all, to everyone who has ever bought a Contributor, we venders are grateful. All of these groups give me hope that a more fair, safe, compassionate, and equal America is possible. That’s what I’m looking forward to.