Where’s the kindness?
In the article, “Tackling homeless problems” (Tribune-Herald, June 16), the language some community members used to describe currently houseless people is deeply disturbing. One person is quoted as saying, “If they take over, it will be worse,” and later, “They’re like cockroaches unfortunately — put the light on and they going to be running away.”
Language used to divide and dehumanize “us” from “them” has been employed when groups of people marginalize and persecute other groups of people. Jewish people were referred to as vermin in Nazi Germany. African people were referred to as monkeys in the American South.
Can’t we do better here on Hawaii Island? Where is the compassion, kindness and aloha?
Becoming houseless is caused by many reasons: losing one’s job, self or family members becoming ill, losing one’s home to foreclosure or lava, mental health issues, addiction to substances, coming back from active service as a military veteran, and others.
Do we really want our keiki, kupuna and ohana living on the streets, in cars, in tents on couches?
Author Toni Morrison wrote: “Homelessness has been recharacterized as streetlessness. Not the poor deprived of homes, but the homed being deprived of their streets.”
It is uncomfortable for the more fortunate to watch people panhandle or to find urine and feces in public places. Imagine how much more uncomfortable it is to be out of work, living out of doors, without access to a shower or a toilet.
Can we find the humanity to picture ourselves in another’s shoes? How must the panhandler feel or the person who must use the bushes as a bathroom? I imagine feeling downtrodden, desperate, even deeply ashamed.
If we truly care about our citizens — and by citizens, I mean all of our island’s residents — we can stop demonizing the currently houseless. Instead, we can as a society mandate building low-income housing units, provide public bathrooms that are open 24/7, decide to house and feed all of our populace and contribute generously toward these programs (even welcoming raised taxes for the public good).
As individuals, we can offer rooms in our houses at low or no rent, volunteer at soup kitchens, donate to nonprofits providing food and shelter, offer a helping hand to those currently less fortunate than we are and use respectful language that acknowledges the worth of every individual — living in homes or not.
Julie Mitchell
Kurtistown