means of survival

You know, being homeless is no laughing matter. To me it's sad to see people who were once productve members of society fall from grace. i can't front though, I did have a slight attitude towards the homeless for a min. In my hood, theres a certain spot where dope feinds, drunks and mock homeless dudes converge at, and most of the time they're begging for whatever they can get. However, there was a point where these so called homeless dudes were robbing people around the way, so it sort of created a negative image of all homeless people. However, just like all black people aren't the same, all homeless people aren't so hungry for food they have to rob people. After talking to a dude who used to pan handle in that spot, he put up on something. he said the majority of dudes out here are junkies, all of em have nice homes, wives children, but they come out here to get high. Thats why they're robbin people. They're not robbin and killin to feed their families. they're robbing to feed their drug habits. But that convo enlightened my train of thought. All homeless people aren't on drugs neither. I'll never forget i was walking into a dunkin donuts and saw a dude sleeping on the ground. the ill feelings I had sort of krept back in my heart. But soon i thought to myself, "what if that was you tryna get a good nights sleep on the dirty cold ground?" You talkin bout $FrEsH-KiNg$ this and BEST DRESSED THAT, but what if you only had the clothes on your back to get you from day to day? On some real survival junk. See i'm not the only one. People have ill feelings about the homeless. Many look down their noses and laugh. But the other part is people are reluctant to give because they feel many are going to misuse the money. when jada said in the why joint, " why you see me on the corner with a why lie, I need a beer sighn" it was real, because thats how many people feel. So the average perception of a homeless person is a sneaky person whose tryna con their way into money for the wrong reason. Like the time my family and I went to our normal dinner spot, dude had three kids. Came up to us, saying he was trying to get to Virginia after he left dinner. we would have been cool, but dude also said he was living out of his car, can we spare anything? So my dad and I gave him something, and we went on our way. The next day, I kid you not, we go to the same dinner spot, do you know dude is up in there again. He didn't figure we were regulars. But wild thing is he couldn't look us in the face. It didn't matter, thats on his soul. but it's those situations that give honest homeless people a bad rap. But all we can do is pray for the world, it's a never ending visous cycle. The homeless deserve to be treated with respect. if you sit down with them long enough they're some of the greatest intelectual minds the world has ever seen. They're some of the best atheletes that have ever played sports. But it's easy to get this way. mis a bill, then start missing three bills. Soon they cut ya lights off, then god forbid your working minimum wage and your trying to stay above the poverty line. Mess around can't pay your rent and you can't afford to find another apartment. where you gonna go? You found yaself homeless!!! Just that simple!!