How do you explain the homeless to your kids? (Seattle: movies, food)

[Condorll]

How do you explain the homeless?

They don't posess the necessary genetic code to make the leap into the poor or the middle class.

[brandonlee206]

That may actually be the best response on this thread...

Originally Posted by Condorll

How do you explain the homeless?

They don't posess the necessary genetic code to make the leap into the poor or the middle class.

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

...not join the military

I wonder what you'll say when your kids ask why so many veterans are homeless.

"Because our country didn't keep their promises to them for sacrificing their sanity and their lives for us"

or

"Because Vietnam was such a psychologically devastating and useless war where they were forced to decide between the lives of themselves and presumably innocent Vietnamese children in guerilla and urban warfare and little was done afterward to keep the veterans sane."


I don't think I'll be advocating a march into Iraq for my children when I want to keep them on the straight and narrow.

[AzDreamer]

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if a lot of Vietnam vets are homeless druggies. Many of the GIs there spend a large part of their time getting high. When they got home they kept at it.

Maybe if they had to get jobs to eat they would have to get sober. Since bleeding hearts take care of them and treat them like children we'll never know.

[woodinvilleguy]

I guess I just tell my kids truth that some people have less than us and that we all need help every once in a while. I'm not a beleiver in giving them money directly, I'm a supporter of organizations that help people to get them back on their feet like tent city.

[AzDreamer]

Why were previous generations able to fight wars and endure long economic depressions and when the opportunity came along they could get on with their lives? Is there is something about today's culture that's different? Is it that people today are less understanding or could it be that people today are willing to excuse destructive behavior?

[sean98125]

There was a greater sense of community in the old days. Today we're all about image and having more stuff instead of on watching out for our neighbors. We didn't have TVs and computers and games to make our minds go blank, and we needed our neighbors, good and bad, for social interaction and for survival. You didn't close you door and draw your blinds and turn on your TV or fire up the computer if you needed to relax - you played cards or tinkered in the shop with your neighbors. People sat out on their porches in the evenings and said hello.

There were significant effects of PTSD in those days. My great-grandfather was a newspaperman who was one of the first in to Manila with the Nebraska Volunteers, and was in the Phillipines for much of the Insurrection - our first Vietnam. He came home with a huge drinking problem, he was unable to hold down a job, and eventually disappeared. His wife moved in with her sister and the two of them raised the kids.

These problems have always been there, but those lucky enough to have a community of friends, family and concerned neighbors around them did fairly well. There were plenty of other men who didn't do that well.

Keep in mind that of all the people who were were veterans of our foreign wars, less than 10% actually saw combat.

We have a society today that is self-absorbed and materialistic. We don't have a sense that we are part of a community any more, so when someone around us has a problem we tend to back away from them instead of trying to help.

[jrtayloriv]

I love it when people look down on someone for being "homeless" and "drinking on the sidewalk". All he is doing is numbing out. He's numbing out the same way the yuppie dad that started this thread probably numbs out by watching TV, listening to Perry Como, or drinking diet cola. It's unhealthy and nasty, but so is everything else this society is doing. To the original poster -- your answer should have been something along the lines of "Son, he's getting drunk because he's trying to hide from a world that's tearing itself to pieces. You shouldn't be too quick to judge him. Because you too are numb -- look at you, sitting in this little glass and steel box, belching poison, making noise, and cutting you off from the outside world. Look at all the toxic chemicals in the food you eat .... do you have it any better?" Try that one out next time.

[sean98125]

Is that what they are teaching at Evergreen these days?

[seattlenextyear]

Belittling the poor, the mentally unstable, veterans and environmentalists. I'm glad this thread is equal-opportunity.