Los
Angeles, California and New York, New York.
Two
cities of global recognition with distinct qualities. However, one of their
characteristics is strikingly similar.
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| Photo Credit by: Josh Williams |
As
the Hollywood sign overlooks the city, an essence of glamour lingers in this
environment. Super stars in convertible cars driving under the warm California
sun along the Pacific coastline is nothing less than abundant in the West
Coast. Fame and fortune are staple characteristics of this wondrous city. Some
of the hottest most well renown artists live here, making it a haven for
aspiring talent. Nicknames characterize the city as The City of Angels, The City of Flowers and Sunshine, and most characteristic of all: La La Land. Hopes
and dreams are washed ashore here.
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| Credit to: Yann Arthus-Bertrand |
The
concrete jungle, buildings that scrape the surface of the sky cause a feeling
of exhilaration. A sort of electrifying force penetrates your skin and blows
you hair backwards as you stand admits a crowd of people. Bustling city streets
filled with a hum from mutter speech and yellow taxies honking at jay walkers.
They nicked name it The Capital of the World to signify its global importance.
Nestled in east coast surrounded by a body of water the island of Manhattan
draws in more people daily then does half of the united states yearly. This
city is known for liberty, expectations, and status.
If
you’ve been to either of these places or not, even through the glitz and glamour
of it all there is one piece of the puzzle I have yet to mention.
However
many differences these cities have, they meet at a cross-roads when it comes to
one unfortunate quality–their abundance of homeless people.
Both
cities have an estimated amount of 60,000 homeless people each.
Remember
that figure is encompassed in a single city not state.
These two cities are the basis of my explanation because they are well the most populated locations in the country.
Nonetheless, The United States of America is a nation seen for its prosperity, morale, abundance and charity. So, why is it that out of its 320 million inhabitants, 3.5 million of them are homeless?
Many
factors contribute to this injustice from the employment-to-population ratioand the college debt epidemic to wealth accumulation or lack of thereof andreal median house hold incomes.
But,
above all of these factors is the perception that the 317 million people who
are not in a penniless situation hold of the homeless.
A negative
stigma has blinded most of Americans from their charitable nature. Due to a few
bad seeds, with bad intentions, – people who pretended to be homeless to earn
effortless cash from gullible strangers– good-hearted people began to grow skeptic
of the indigent and their so called neediness.
Therefore,
homeless people in America are now treated like freeloaders. This stands for
those who take advantage of others generosity without giving anything in
return. Though the term freeloader has a negative connotation, it should be
treated neutrally as is needy or less fortunate.
When
facing poverty, a person owns nothing but their dignity and at times that is
too costly to maintain. so, freeloaders are people who take advantage of others
generosity and cannot give anything
in return not that they are unwilling to give back.
These
few bad people ruined the credibility of the homeless causing less coins to
land in tin cans held by hopeful hands rather than on floors abandoned by man.
Because
my main focus when speaking of poverty is in countries out of our reach, it’s
easy to hold the phrase ‘out of site out of mind’ before our eyes. But, before
you continue to grasp onto your pocket change tightly, keeping it from seeing
the light of day, unveil your eyes from this invisible blindfold and realize
that it could be making a difference for someone else.
Poverty
is happening here –from our largest cities to our smallest towns.
It is not a foreign concept.
The
only way to contribute to its reversal is to change for change.
This is the first time I have gotten a chance to read your blog and this was a really interesting post. The title captured my attention. Being raised in America my whole life it caught me by surprised and intrigued me to see where you were going with it. I love how you described both LA and NYC, while I've never been to LA, NYC was described perfectly in my opinion. Then you turned directions and talked about those in need of help. I have definitely noticed an increase in homeless people and others unwilling to give a helping hand, thank you for bringing some more light to the topic.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you painted both LA and NYC as glamorous cities from the outset. When you dropped the homelessness statistic, it came in sharp contrast to the vivid and luxurious descriptions you started out with. You also did well in mentioning some stats and figures that could be cause for the high homelessness in the US, but you focused on the cultural perception and negative stigmatization of the homeless, which created a more compelling post than simply listing off data.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the title! Like Laura, it captured my attention and made me want to read your blog. I really like this post because I think we all know what you're saying is true. LA and NYC are both beautiful and luxurious cities that bring tourists in from all over the world. When most people think of LA and NYC they think of the glamor and the attractions and tend to forget that there are still thousands who need aid and support. Hopefully more people will be willing to offer a helping hand!
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about the homeless, it is incredibly important to note that many perpetually homeless individuals have mental illnesses which keeps landing them on the streets. Just throwing money at them will do nothing. Help needs to reach them in other ways in order to get them off the streets.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that homeless people have been surrounded by such a negative stigma. I would like to say that while dignity can only go so far, there are many people still in poverty whose pride keeps them off the streets. It is real shame that so many are in poverty.
ReplyDelete