You know, I was having a conversation with someone today, and we got to talking about the subway, which, as I was saying, is clearly dirty and smelly, but I suppose I will take that over having to take a taxi home twice a weekend, or any night after 11:30 (esp in a city much much larger than Daegu). As our discussion spiraled into the cost-benefits of having a cleaner system – I remember asking if she would personally like to pay the approximate cost of 8 late night cab rides per month in order to keep it clean ($160ish, depending), and she said yes, which goes to show you either how cheap I am or how silly she was being – we got into a side-chat about the homeless situation around the city, which, while slightly less egregious than before, could use a lot of work.

When I call it egregious – a word we both agreed on – I mean that the fact that so many folks are out on the streets is distressing to me. But she meant, the fact that they're out there stinking up the city was annoying to her.

We are not the first set of people to have this argument.

And then the discussion broadened into the impoverished rather than merely the homeless.

And thus I was inspired for today's post.

I don't doubt that many of the issues the homeless face can be caused by carelessness, and that, unfortunately, living without a shower (in 100 degree weather) does not lead to nice odors. And, sadly, many folks are living with undiagnosed (or diagnosed but untreated) mental illnesses, and thus will act in ways that disrupt the rest of us.

I think there are many interesting and vital conversations to be had about this topic – might we engage in one here? - but too often, whether it's the homeless or the poor involved, first of all, they're never involved in the discussion themselves (mostly due to logistics, but also deliberately so), and second, we tend to speak of them like lesser beings, somehow unfit to breathe our air along with us.

(Turns out this woman lived in Spain for a while and decided that Europe does everything perfectly. Ah, another middle-class person with a Europe fetish. I like a lot of that continent, but, really, it is not flawless, and, for some folks, it's as if there is no other place on Earth...)

You know, you could easily create a specific narrative about someone who really did piss away all their money and ended up on the streets because of their own foolishness. But when someone is living out of trash cans, it is quite unlikely that this is the life they would choose for themselves. Yes, punish them if they commit crimes that hurt others – same as we must to everyone from LiLo on down – but we need to expend a bit more energy on respect.

“Well, fuck them, they screwed up, let them suffer, and get 'em out of my city” isn't an attitude you'd expect me to espouse, though, is it?

I don't really know how to fix the overall problem. But making this small change would certainly be beneficial rather than harmful.

When I say peace and love, I mean it for all of us.

So, peace and love, and until next time,
Justin PBG