New View

To all the people on Spring Garden Rd. who I see asking for spare change when I walk down the street, I just want to say that I admire your dedication and endurance. After reading a book for one of my classes I now have a better understanding of why you might be in the situation you are in, even though I can’t fully understand because I’ve never been in it. I will no longer see you as just homeless people, but rather people affected by various social factors out of your control, especially the stigma about people in your situation created by what society views as ‘normal’ or socially acceptable. I also know that this stigma we as a society attach to you does not help when you try to better your lives by doing things like getting a job and that the structure of our society is set up in such a way that the benefits you receive might not be as much as you need to help you. While there is probably a wide variety of more complexities that have lead you to where you are, from now on I will keep the fact that there are these complexities in mind when I see you on Spring Garden. —Changed Perspective

This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.