Payton Palmer
April 25, 2013
English 2010
Homelessness Surrounding Us
Homelessness is a huge,but preventable, problem that our nation is dealing with on a daily basis. I read two stories: The first story is titled Death of a Homeless Man, by Scott Russell Sanders; the second story is Homeless in America, by Julia Vitullo Martin. Each of the stories discusses the issues and consequences of being homeless.
The first story I read was titled Death of a Homeless Man by Scott Russell Sanders. The book was about a man named John Griffin who was burned alive because he was alcoholic. While drinking one night, he was sitting next to an open flame, trying to stay warm since he was living in a shack during a horrible winter blizzard. The open flame caught him on fire, which led to his death.
The second Article I read was from the Wall Street Journalwritten by Julia Vitullo Martin titledHomeless in America. The story goes into depth how Americans are lacking when it comes to helping poor, homeless folks in America.
In both of the articles, homelessness is discussed. The stories state that homeless people tend to have an alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and/or a mental illness. The addiction was either the cause of the individual having to result to living on the streets and/or was the reason for keeping them on the streets.Most of these individuals that have these problems feel that they are not to blame because they do not have a mentor to help get them off of these addictions, to help better their lives, and to get them off of the streets.
Also, both articles talk about how the addictions are preventable problems. The Bush Administration in 2007 contributed over $4 billion annually to help improve the homelessness issue.In Death of a Homeless Man, the town mayor and a local priest tried to help a man who didn’t have a chance or the resources to help him.The mayor states,“We as in our nation are not doing what it takes to help out the people that are down in their lives.” (Sanders)Both articlesalso discuss alternatives to shelter for homeless Americans; such as local community homeless shelters.
The story Death of a Homeless Man tells the story of how an addiction and homelessness lead to a man’s death; and how we as Americans are not doing our part in trying to fix the issue. But the article Homelessness in America focuses on what we can do to fix this issue and the impact homelessness has.
Homeless Americans tend to be undereducated. John Griffin was a Korean War Veteran and was probably not a college graduate. The article from the Wall Street Journal states that people being released from jail, have little or no education background. These people have a greater chance of becoming homeless and abandoned to the streets. These people are then alone and feel completely hopeless.
After appreciating the two articles previously discussed, I can conclude with stating that homelessness is a catastrophic problem in America. However, it is a problem that can be fixed if each individual can pitch in and help each and every chance they get.