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A piece I recently wrote about a homeless family sparked a flood of angry comments coming to me via multiple routes, which argued what the people "should" have done to prevent their current hardship. Since my natural inclination is to appreciate different perspectives and empathize with individual struggles, I can understand clearly how it provides comfort to pass judgment on the homeless. If you believe there are things someone should have or could have done differently, then that means it could never happen to you.
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"Home," Crystal says, drawing one hand to her chest as the other catches a welling tear before it spills down her face. "Just speaking that word now is enough to make my heart flutter." After four months sleeping on fold-out cots and air mattresses at a succession of different churches, Crystal, husband Robert, and four children--aged four through thirteen--have finally found their way "home." Of course this story holds elements of heartbreak, exploitation, and outrage, though their own indelible recession memories will more likely recall fires of adversity forging familial bonds as strong as steel, and the boundless endurance and faith these times compelled them to discover within themselves.
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The descent into homelessness can be equated to falling off a cliff. Wealth buys passage on toll roads a safe distance from the edge, but poverty's foot path runs along the craggy and unstable lip of a gaping precipice. Emma and her family hit a few ledges on the way down, blown by winds of misfortune every time they began to regain stable footing. As Emma describes their story: "It's too much bad luck for anyone to believe."
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The question I'm most frequently asked along the Recession Road Trip goes something like: "Don't you get depressed listening to people's problems every single day?" My answer is generally no, that appreciating harsh realities of economic hardship creates perspective for my own petty concerns about mounting credit card debt and the vagueness of my future career. But that's sometimes a lie, especially when it pertains to the Zimmermans, the 62-year-old couple I wrote about last week on their first night of homeless, spent with their wonderful new friends of SafeGround Sacramento. This is a piece that really stuck with me, and considering the number of comments, emails, and phonecalls I received about it, I realize the heartbreaking story affected many. So much has happened to the Zimmermans and SafeGround over the past week, I had to update their story. Best highlight: Charles Zimmerman's military pension is being resolved, and he will soon receive a large check for back pay.
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Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.
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Over the many hours I spend listening to the triumphs and tragedies of Rita Baldwin's epic life, Kurt Vonnegut interjects his own commentary into my inner-monologue. "Smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide," he reminds me every time the flick of Rita's orange Bic launches its feeble flame toward the business end of yet another 305 cigarette.
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Results tagged “homelessness”
A piece I recently wrote about a homeless family sparked a flood of angry comments coming to me via multiple routes, which argued what the people "should" have done to prevent their current hardship. Since my natural inclination is to appreciate different perspectives and empathize with individual struggles, I can understand clearly how it provides comfort to pass judgment on the homeless. If you believe there are things someone should have or could have done differently, then that means it could never happen to you.Read More
"Home," Crystal says, drawing one hand to her chest as the other catches a welling tear before it spills down her face. "Just speaking that word now is enough to make my heart flutter." After four months sleeping on fold-out cots and air mattresses at a succession of different churches, Crystal, husband Robert, and four children--aged four through thirteen--have finally found their way "home." Of course this story holds elements of heartbreak, exploitation, and outrage, though their own indelible recession memories will more likely recall fires of adversity forging familial bonds as strong as steel, and the boundless endurance and faith these times compelled them to discover within themselves.Read More
The descent into homelessness can be equated to falling off a cliff. Wealth buys passage on toll roads a safe distance from the edge, but poverty's foot path runs along the craggy and unstable lip of a gaping precipice. Emma and her family hit a few ledges on the way down, blown by winds of misfortune every time they began to regain stable footing. As Emma describes their story: "It's too much bad luck for anyone to believe." Read More
The question I'm most frequently asked along the Recession Road Trip goes something like: "Don't you get depressed listening to people's problems every single day?" My answer is generally no, that appreciating harsh realities of economic hardship creates perspective for my own petty concerns about mounting credit card debt and the vagueness of my future career. But that's sometimes a lie, especially when it pertains to the Zimmermans, the 62-year-old couple I wrote about last week on their first night of homeless, spent with their wonderful new friends of SafeGround Sacramento. This is a piece that really stuck with me, and considering the number of comments, emails, and phonecalls I received about it, I realize the heartbreaking story affected many. So much has happened to the Zimmermans and SafeGround over the past week, I had to update their story. Best highlight: Charles Zimmerman's military pension is being resolved, and he will soon receive a large check for back pay.Read More
Elizabeth looks weary, pale, and drawn, gently wringing her hands, toying with the hospital admittance bracelet still encircling her wrist. Slumped in the kind of canvas camping chair that makes any other sitting position a feat of strenuous exertion, Elizabeth closely watches Charles, her husband of forty-one years, as he bashes around inside the donated tent, arranging their borrowed bedding. Their 5-piece set of matching maroon luggage might not all fit inside, but the couple will have a roof-of-sorts for the night, sleeping side-by-side as two of the country's newest homeless citizens.Read More
Over the many hours I spend listening to the triumphs and tragedies of Rita Baldwin's epic life, Kurt Vonnegut interjects his own commentary into my inner-monologue. "Smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide," he reminds me every time the flick of Rita's orange Bic launches its feeble flame toward the business end of yet another 305 cigarette. Read More
07/10/09 12:00 PM
A Note on Unemployment Statistics
I tried unsuccessfully to tune out Fox News blaring in the diner where I had breakfast yesterday. With some characteristic outrage, host Megyn Kelly reported that the 9.5% unemployment rate does not even include those people who have been jobless so long they've exhausted unemployment benefits--an error repeated minutes later by a FOX economic correspondent. One could argue from many angles that 9.5% underestimates the number of jobless, but the figure has nothing to do with the number of people collecting unemployment. Read on for a brief outline of the methodology the Department of Labor uses to calculate the unemployment rate. Read More
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