Homelessness for Stupid People
The foibles of the most pampered homeless population in the Bay Area...
Would you rather sleep with a rapist,
or freeze?
The Livermore Homeless Refuge is
seasonal. It runs from November 1 through April 30. It is open on
nights on which the weather is predicted to be below 40 Degrees
Fahrenheit or has a 20% Chance of Rain. (Pretty sure that's correct,
it might be 10%... but I'm pretty sure it's 20%). It's not open
nightly. The Guests, or as the public at large call them: The
Homeless, call this operation The Warming Centre.
Last season the operation moved between
four churches. Holy Cross Lutheran on Mocho Street, Asbury Methodist
on East Avenue, Vineyard Christian Fellowship on North Livermore
Avenue and, on Saturday and Sunday Night only, First Presbyterian
Church on 4th and L street. In the first three the
operation will spend two or three weeks (depending) before moving to
the next location.
The rules have been pretty simple.
Sign in is between 6pm and 8pm, nobody gets in after 8pm. Lights out
at 10pm. No roaming around, no playing on computers or gameboys, and
cell phones better durn well be OFF after that. Yes, you can use the
bathroom.... don't camp in it! Wake up at 6am. Stow sleeping gear,
gather your stuff and be gone, as in off Church property, by 7am.
Get caught with Drugs or Alcohol: go sleep outside.
Wandering around at night was forbidden
this last season. With everyone sleeps in one big, communal room,
having people wandering around is a little creepy. It also disrupts
sleep for those of us who are light sleepers. It's difficult enough
to sleep in this environment in the first place. Because of this
some actually wait till it gets down to 32 degrees before biting the
bullet and going to the Warming Centre.
So, you arrive, Bob gets you a mat, a
sleeping bag and a blanket (Unless you're Princess Paul, then you
build a kit that's 20 feather beds and 20 mattresses). You set up
your spot, and Donna finds a way to stuff your face full of food. We
call her the Taxidermist. She stuffs people for fun. Food gets put
away at 8pm. There's a 42” flatscreen TV that travels with the
Warming Centre. On it are shown DVDs that are borrowed from the
Library usually, or whatever someone else brings in. You can
actually hear it if the loud folks aren't being too rude about the
volume of their voices...
Over this last winter, a lot of things
happened. Adam Parris, who I've mentioned in a prior blog, was one
of several to be booted out of the Warming Centre. He was tolerated
for quite a long time. But in tolerating people like Adam Parris, a
man who at least two women have claimed raped them, the guests which
spend the night sleeping in the same room with him are... what? His
equals?
Boston Bill was never welcomed back.
At Christmas there was no Warming Centre for one night. Rooms were
rented at a local motel for several of the people and Boston Bill
brought a lot of beer, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and refused to
leave till four hours past the 11am check out time. The room
couldn't be rented out for days after because of all the smoking Bill
did in it.
Popeye is a notorious alcoholic, and
flaunted the rules on alcohol in the Warming Centre repeatedly for
several years. He had been given chance after chance after chance
till, finally, the volunteers had had enough, and aced him.
In the meantime, people are forced to
sleep in the same room with alcoholics, malcontents and sex
offenders, or endure the elements.
The biggest issue is the way many
Christians interpret the idea of Christian Mercy. All must be
forgiven, and forgiveness is free. Scrutiny of the Bible reveals
this to be a misinterpretation, but no matter, it's inarguable. You
will, as a Christian, forgive everyone of everything or you're not a
Christian, regardless of how sorry, or not sorry, they are. And,
therefore, Christian Mercy is all about... wait for it... TOLERANCE!
Yes, folks... there's that word
again... Tolerance... My God, how I do hate that word...
You will sometimes hear a homeless
person complain that all homeless get lumped into one big category.
They're all bums. They're all lazy, no good, worthless types who
expect the world handed to them, and cry when they don't get it.
While it is true that there are a few out in the public at large that
do believe this to be true, the vast majority I meet stop believing
it when they meet some of the people I know. (Like Pat from my
previous blog, or Gary, Nick, Kenny, Roger, or John and Ricky... from
blogs prior to that).
I've already mentioned many names
(Keith and Nancy) of people who are exactly the type of person that
truly believes the world should give them a life of luxury. They're
out there, to be sure.
But there are also drunks and drug
addicts. There are sex offenders, and some who are truly violent.
Many of the drug addicts are thieves. Did I mention Leonard Mooney?
Tried to steel my bike twice, and has stolen bicycles from several of
my friends already? He sells those to feed his addiction to
methamphetamine.
The problem with the interpretation of
Christian Mercy I describe above is that it truly does put all of us
in one big boat. Christians provide almost all the services
available to the homeless of Livermore. It's the Church People,
folks, that do. Others do not. Christians Do, because God tells
Christians to Do right there in the Gospel according to Matthew,
Chapter 25 verse 40, you guys are honouring God when you take care of
the poor. How beautiful is that? I've never heard of this in any
other religious doctrine... (not saying it's exclusive to Christians,
just that I've never heard of it being part of any other doctrine).
But it is because of this whole notion
of Free Forgiveness that it's almost considered un-Christian to have
any kind of standards. Nothing bears consequence.
Let me be perfectly clear on this: when
you have no standards, you create chaos. Any rule that is unenforced
is meaningless. Any protection that is not acted upon is no
protection at all.
For a lot of Christians, this is a huge
theological struggle, especially when they realize that their lack of
standards enables very bad people to victimize others.
So, back to my original question: Would
you rather sleep with a rapist, or freeze?
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