Nobody Cares about the Homeless...?

On my way home from work, a homeless man in a wheelchair who's fingers were terribly disfigured, went up and down the train car asking for money. At the next stop, a magician came on the train and did a magic act at the same time this homeless guy in a wheelchair was asking for money. Guess who won? The guy in the wheelchair, obviously. You couldn't feel disgust towards this guy...you felt something closer to pity. Didn't matter though--this obese woman on the train practically laid out on the seat afraid his diseased hand would give her some type of deadly disease....or at least warts.

On my way to my LSAT Kaplan course, I was sitting with a friend on the train, and this blind dude came on the train asking for money. My friend told me he wasn't really blind though. Apparently, when he first entered the train, his eyes were looking up, and then for the rest of the time, they were looking straight ahead. Plus, he was walking too straight and he didn't once bump into anything. On a train car no less!

On my way to the train station, there's a black man sitting on a crate asking for money. But I don't really think he's homeless. His sneakers cost at least $100.

Another homeless guy came on the train asking for money--but I don't remember his ailment. I gave him money anyway.

This black kid came on the train selling candy. He said he needed money to help pay for his college education. I gave him $2.

Two kids came on the train, a sister and a brother, asking for money. I had my headphones on so I couldn't hear what their story was.

A dancing troupe came on the 4 train on my way back home--four black boys, all of which did stunts like cartwheels and rolls with two people up and down the train car. With poles in the way and people's feet! It was quite entertaining.

A middle-aged black man with a car wash business came on the train collecting money for other homeless people since alot of them can't beg for money on their own. Looks like he's a good friend and wants to give back to the community. I gave him a dollar.

Another girl came on the train, Latina/o, Hispanic, Spanish, whatever you want to call them, came on the train asking for money to help her mother feed her children.

Whenever a homeless person or a beggar comes on the train, eyes are averted so as not to make direct eye contact with the piteous figure on the train. Feet are shuffled and people visibly close up in hope that the homeless person won't come their way. As the beggar passes, eyes land on him/her/them to see if they're not faking or to figure out what their story is. Noses are held so that you can't smell the obscene scent of dirt and of being dirty.

Then the story is told, or the person has made their first round up and down the car. Some people take a dollar or some change out--never looking into anyone else's eyes, not even the homeless person, as if what they're doing is wrong or weird in some way. And then the train stops and the homeless person gets off, or goes into the next car, ready to subject another full car to his/her propensities.

Many things strike me odd--why are the homeless homeless? Are they homeless because the bills they had to pay became too much? Is it because, besides the weather, being homeless is actually alot more easier than living in a hole? I mean, think about it--you can live wherever you want to when you're homeless. There's an endless list of prime real estate available to the homeless. Being homeless is like the best form of independence really--and independence is what this country is all about. You're not tied down by mortgages or rent checks.

And, what makes a person, who isn't homeless, beg? What makes a person say to themself, I would rather beg for money on the train or the street, rather than get a job? Is it because they are lazy? Is it simply another mode of entrepreneurship? Is it because that is their only option left? That begging is the only job that they applied for that would accept them regardless of their background history?

I'm not being sarcastic in asking my questions. Nine times out of ten I encounter a homeless person on the train and I always see a homeless person on my way to work. I even budget a certain amount of money a week to give out to the homeless if I see them. Irrespective of the fact that there isn't enough beds to house all of the homeless of NYS, alot of homeless people don't want to live in shelters. Why not? Because it's a cutthroat world even inside a shelter, where your stuff can get stolen the minute you blink. Because, although you may smell, living in a room with people who smell more than you do, altogether, would most likely cause you to die of suffocation, or of a bad smell.

And it's not like the government is trying to help these people out. For instance, when you get out of jail. depending on your conviction, you could be without public housing for up to 5 years. Now. unless The Home Depot (who by the way, until recently, was adamant about making sure "No Criminals" was plastered all over their applications...criminals still won't be hired, but it's just not in writing anymore) will accept:

James Johnson

Corner of 86th and Lexington Street

New York, NY

Phone #: 000-000-0000

as an appropriate dwelling space, you can't really get a job without someplace to call your own. In the subway cars, there are posters that say "If you see a homeless person, DON'T give them any money." In fact, there are places where they can get the things they need in-kind.

Yea Right.

But, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I think the one thing that's going to undo me is the day I see a child asking me for money. In that case, I think I would give them my PIN number, and my wallet with all my credit cards and tell them to move to Cuba. I would then tell them that everything will be okay.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhythms

My blog is late--it's supposed to be written in on Wednesday, but I didn't have a chance to until today. I continued my survey for the LawHelp website this week as well as other assignments concerning my summer project.

Alas, my blog this week will be rather short and actually concerns the DVD we watched today called Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhythms. I never saw the film until today, but there were several discussions surrounding the issues pre-empted by the film at Cornell this past year. I never attended any of discussions. Why? Because I'm frankly, sick and tired of talking about the same issues over and over and over again. If there's one thing Black people like to do, it's to talk. I love my people, and I thought the film was thought-provoking. As a matter of fact, I would show that film to people as an opportunity to expose them to issues they might believe do not exist. But, it has come to a point where these discussions have forced me to re-affirm my own beliefs, as opposed to learning and changing how I feel about hip hop and media and it's connection with Blacks in the United States. With that said, while informative, the film was entertaining at most. But I really can't stand talking about it anymore. I want to see action. I'm tired of reflecting, I'm tired of interning, I'm tired of watching, I'm tired of noticing, I'm tired of remarking, I'm tired of asking questions, I'm tired of learning, I'm especially tired of talking---in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the greatest civil rights activists ever (in my opinion), "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."

Don't talk about it, be about it.

The Internet: The Gateway to Useless Information

So this week I began a survey of the Bronx Defenders clients asking them what they would name a website that addressed the basic issues of criminal justice. We have a parternship with this program called LawHelp housed at the New York City Bar Association. They have a website where you can seek rudimentary legal advice--you can find a legal service provider, there is a section called "Know Your Rights" for different things like housing, immigration, employment, etc... which services mainly a civil justice realm. If there are any collateral consequences that are related due to any charges outside of civil legalities, then it will show up. In fact, my supervisor just got LawHelp to add "Encounters with the Police" using the argument that everyone should know how to handle interacting with the police and that it is not only criminals who have to deal with that all that time. But there is no "in your face" section about criminal law/help or anything like that. The Bronx Defenders, then, with Re-Entry Net is trying to come up with a section that regarding criminal help. Only it seems like the people at LawHelp don't want to stray away from the civil aspect of their website, and has made it kind of hard to name the section on which Re-Entry Net would be handling. Originally, they had wanted to name it "Collateral Consequences of Non-Criminal Proceedings" .... but the website is supposed to be for the general public, and honestly, if you're either not in law school, a law buff, or just smart, you're obviously not going to know what that means and there is a less likely chance of you clicking on that link in order to access very useful information. Another suggestion was Criminal Justice & Re-Entry but that idea got shot down as well (not sure why).

So anyway, LawHelp suggested that we interview our own clients to see what they would name a website that would provide information and services on things like understanding your rap sheet, the path of an arrest, how to retrieve your property and how to prevent or retain housing/employment after an arrest. We figured since these would be the people most likely to need the information, they should be able to give us a glimpse into what it could be called.

Well--the first guy I interviewed launched into a morbid "conspiracy" theory about the shelter system and the police brutality that goes along with it. He said that the police, who were mainly Hispanic and Black, were beating up on the homeless, who are also predominately Hispanic and Black. In that case, even Al Sharpton wouldn't help seek some sort of justice because noone wants to address an issue like that. Kind of like how the fact that a Black police officer was also present at the Sean Bell shooting got glossed over. Black on Black crime isn't going to be beneficial to an agenda like Al Sharpton because it's not White on Black. And no White lawyer is going to take up the case because you know for sure that he and the his entire campaign will be labeled 'legal lynchers' and racists for LIFE.

To say the least, half of the clients couldn't speak English, and many others didn't have access to the Internet. So here's my thinking--Re-Entry Net and LawHelp has all this useful information. Last summer, an intern spent her entire summer just looking up resources for these collateral consequences of blah blah blah. All these people deserve to know what their rights are as convicted felons, etc... and they should be aware that they might get evicted and that their family could get evicted too. They have a right to know that Public and Section 8 Housing has a waiting list 5x longer than the Empire State Building and should know about other options available to them. The should know about organizations like The Fortune Society and its Castle I & II and the Osborne Society, CEO, Supportive Housing and the National H.I.R.E. Network. The question is how do we get that information out to them? Unfortunately, the people who need this information the most are the hardest to reach. Every morning I wake up I have ready access to the Internet--I literally have the world at my fingertips. I'm writing my "reflections" on a "blog" in this big double room that some Top Tier Colleges only dream about on my second laptop with about 3 dozen Puma bags to my left and LSAT prep books to my right. Half of the clients I spoke to only knew about Google.com because they probably heard it on some song. These people know as much as we do because of Law & Order and the only way they find out about the information is when it actually happens to them.

Needless to say the disparities are rather striking.

Did you know that they was such a thing as squatters' rights? See I always thought the homeless were called the homeless only in the U.S. and then squatters everywhere else. It seemed like that to me in CRP101: The Global South anyway.