This is America:
“Kent,” a 68 year old veteran dying under a bush outside million dollar properties in LA. The softball size tumor on the side of his face is now a gaping hole. Dried blood covers his hands and face. Flies swarm around his head, not bothering to wait for him to die before laying their eggs in the open wound that is crawling with hundreds of maggots. He tries to speak, but I can no longer understand him. This is fucking America!
“I’m just looking for a place to die,” he said. Those were his first words to me when I first discovered “Kent” about a month a go in shallow bed under the bushes outside my place. Like many people, my initial gut reaction was, not in my backyard! But I know better. I’m aware that homelessness is a symptom of our broken and wasteful system, and the basic lack of decency, and compassion towards one another. We treat people like trash. We want to discard the parts of society we don’t want, but like plastic, it’s never going to go away. All we do is make the problem worse, rather than realizing that our own habits are the problem. The way we treat people is the problem. We speak to one another through our own filters, and judgements before we even get to know them. So, instead I brought “Kent” water, and sat down to talk with him for awhile. He pulled his hoodie aside and showed me the tumor on the side of his face. “I did it to myself,” he said. Years of smoking was the likely cause. He went to the VA for medical care, but he said that he felt like they were just waiting for him to die so he left. I asked if I could get him some help, but he didn’t want it. “I’m just looking for a place to die,” he said.
We are all full of shit, guys. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Between the look-at-me-now Instagram selfies, the woke AF Facebook posts, and the heated political rants over which party is more American, we have lost our souls. We’ve sold out. We’ve forgotten that real wealth comes from investing in one another. This isn’t the “Me Too” era, it’s just the “Me” era. We are the wealthiest, and most wasteful consumer culture in the history of humankind, and we buy everything they sell us, even their excuses. “We can’t fix every problem! It’s too big! It’s too expensive! Get a job! I had to work for it, why shouldn’t they?!” Bullshit!!! Each bomb we dropped on Syria costs us $100 million, and we’ve dropped dozens. The Iraq War cost American taxpayers over $2.5 trillion dollars and counting, and it was a lie! We have our own national emergency right here in the City of Dreams, but we don’t have enough money to fix it. Could you imagine what would happen if we took funding for just one of those bombs, and dropped it into social services for American communities; into shelters for the homeless; medical care for our vets; clean water for Flint?!?! Don’t say we can’t fix the problem, because that’s bullshit. We can!!! We are just so god damn brainwashed and complacent that we don’t think we actually have any power to change it. But change starts when we stop ignoring the problem, and realize that we are the ones to fix it. Even the smallest act makes a big difference. There is no one else to call! Tag! You’re fucking it!
The irony of the fact that I took a photo of “Kent” as he lie dying outside my house while waiting for paramedics to arrive, and posted it here for all to see, isn’t lost on me. This might appear hypocritical to some, but that won’t change my commitment to people like “Kent” in my community. I will continue to treat these people with dignity and respect, and be of service anyway I can, and if in the process, this post gets at least one of you, the next time you see someone camped out on the street, to stop and talk to them; to put your hand on their shoulder; to call them brother or sister; and to restore even the slightest sense of dignity in them through a simple act of compassion, then it’s worth it.
As they lifted Kent onto the stretcher, I put my hand on his shoulder and said that I was sorry I couldn’t do more. He lifted his hand, and gave me a peace sign. - People over Profits - -Compassion over Comfort -
