HOMELESS-AS GOOD AS IT GETS?

As I pulled to a stop at a red light in downtown New Orleans today, a disheveled man caught my eye. He wore an over sized shirt, baggy pants and tennis shoes that looked three sizes too big. His shoulders were hunched over and his thinning gray hair framed an unshaven face. A plastic grocery bag swung from his arm as he walked with those big tennis shoes that reminded me of clown shoes. I watched as he stopped in front of a large trash can, reached in and pulled out a brown paper bag that held an open beer can. He put the can to his lips, leaned back his head and tried to take a drink...But the can was obviously empty, so he threw it back into the garbage and shuffled away, muttering to himself. I felt deep sadness for him...Because for him, this may be as good as it gets.

There are thousands of homeless people in New Orleans and millions nationwide...In these difficult economic times, the figures are rising. Poverty is at the heart of the problem, but the poverty of the soul, keeps the problem growing and festering and exploding into record numbers. We are all accountable, although I've known too many people who think we are not.

I often hear people talking, about how the homeless just need to get a job. Many of them have jobs, but the money they are making isn't enough to pay for rent and food and the basic necessities that most people take for granted. So they live in parks and abandoned buildings, homeless shelters and under bridges. A growing number of the homeless have lost their jobs, are the displaced victims of domestic violence or the casualties of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

You see these people everywhere...often standing at street corners holding homeless signs and begging for a handout. I almost always give them something...because I learned a long time ago, it is better to give for the right reasons and be fooled, then to withhold for the wrong reasons and contribute to the misery.

Mother Teresa, who I interviewed not long before her death, said it best.

"At the end of life we will not be judged by how much money we have made, how many diplomas we have received, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.' Hungry not only for bread-but hungry for Love. Naked not only for clothing-but naked for dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks-but homeless because of rejection.'"

Mother Teresa