You can have a full-time job and still be homeless!
I hear a bell tolling so loudly it wakes me. I reach over and hit the snooze button several times. This is how my day starts every morning. Five more minutes has passed, and I reach to turn the alarm off. I swing my feet over to the floor and try to convince myself to go to work.
I look over and see my girlfriend is still asleep, she can sleep through anything. Her days are long too. She tutors part-time during the day and waitresses full-time at night. She does okay on tips sometimes [most of the time] making more than I do as an hourly employee.
My day starts at 6am every day and continues until midnight. I work at the Pizza Hut down the road from me. I’ve worked there on and off for five years but the last two has been continuous. I punch in at 7am every morning to open the store.
I’m lucky though, I live five minutes away and I’m by myself until 8am. It’s a hard job, not so physically but mentally. I must deal with people daily who, despite the fact they eat here every day, complain about how badly the food is . . . they are just looking for a free meal.
I clock out at 3pm and head to my second job.
Is it worth it? Anything that keeps me off the streets is worth it. Being a former homeless person, I know what it’s like.
Just like every other group, the homeless have their stereotypes too. The difference between stereotyping the homeless and stereotyping the other so-called minorities is it’s okay to do so.
There are also no laws penalizing people for discriminating against the homeless when in fact there are federal laws and Constitutional amendments which make it a crime to discriminate against minorities.
There are no Constitutional amendments which make it illegal to discriminate, stereotype, or segregate against those who are homeless, veritably, there are local laws and ordinances disguised as anti-vagrancy laws which appear to criminalize homelessness and anyone who helps them.
The common stereotype of the homeless is they are lazy, they have a drug or alcohol dependency problem, or they just don’t want to deal with society; this pretty much describes all walks of life. Hmph! Part…
