The Humanity of the Neglected

               It is always an interesting phenomenon when the image of something is drastically different than the reality. Especially when that reality is one as easy to observe as homelessness. It is because of this dichotomy that I have chose to produce an expositional piece on the real circumstances of three homeless people. This is not a huge undertaking, consisting of countrywide statistics and preaching stances. This is simply a look at whom these people are and what they think of their situation, why they think they are there and how they feel they got there. I will frame my questions, observations and conclusions through the lens of Human Rights, specifically those exhibited in the mainstream treaties and declarations adopted by the United Nations. I have decided to do this because I see the way that our society portrays the homeless is a caricature of how they really are. Perhaps unconsciously, we are continuing a feeling of fear to a certain group of people based on something that is largely out of heir control at a certain stage. Because of their outer appearance and their economic condition we segregate, discriminate, and just plain don’t like these fellow human beings. In this sense, we are denying them their fundamental human rights that among others, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says all have simply for being human.

            Currently, the kinds of explanations about the homeless already have negative connotations behind them: they are people who just didn't work hard enough to make something of themselves. The explanations for why they remain are just the same: they spend all their money on booze and drugs, never thinking of what they should be doing. The questions that people ask, I know I have myself, don't account for the true circumstances in reality, most have the general opinion of Todd Wilemon, a managing director from Euronext of the New York Stock Exchange saying, "If you're poor, stop being poor." There is a bias and judgment that has been fostered by our system against the homeless, that they are where they are now because of their own mistakes. But the truth is, I do now know. I don't know the stories of these people, I don't know what they went through, what brought them here, what they did before the streets. Because of their socio-economic situation, they will never be able to tell their story. We are pre-disposed to avoid eye contact, not listen to their plight, not believe anything they say, and be afraid of them, simply because they're homeless. I know that I sometimes feel misunderstood, as all people do. I feel that I am misrepresented in the eyes of others, that I don’t have a voice in this world; I am just another person in the billions who live. Yet I can speak and people will hear me. Imagine being a homeless person, living on the streets, dressed in ragged clothes and is shunned by all who see him. I have the ability to gain people’s attention when I talk because of what I dress like, how I talk and in what context I approach them, all of which have nothing to do with what I say. Yet I am more listened to than they are simply because of who they are as an economic statistic.  The population in general is content to reducing them to something sub-human, something that deserves no respect and none of the basic curtsies or rights that we are all entitled to as humans.

            The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948. It represented the first world document expressing the rights all humans were entitled to simply for being human. In this document I found many different rights that were infringed upon once a person became homeless. The argument could also be made that the United Nations Convention Against Torture could be included in the documents cited.

The rights ignored are as follows:

•       Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

•       Article 15: 

            ◦       (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

            ◦       (2) No one shall be arbitrarily neither deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

•       Article 17:

            ◦       (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

            ◦       (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property

•       Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

•       Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

•       Article 26:

            ◦       (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

            ◦       (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

           

            Articles 6, 15, 22, and 26 are of particular interest when speaking of the Convention Against Torture. These humans are being reduced to a statistic even more than the average person. Though you have thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas just like they do, people are much more likely to listen to you because of how they see you are on the outside. By denying the concept of 'recognition' to the homeless, we are demoting them from human to sub-human. Though we as a society might not be filling the legal requirements of the UN Convention Against Torture, I feel we are still inflicting a kind of mental torture. When we don’t treat others like humans, there is only so much a person can take before they convince themselves of the same. We are actually perpetuating the situation by not helping and changing.  Those who stand by and watch this degradation happen are just as responsible. Not acknowledging these rights, doing nothing when you know rights are being violated, puts all who stand by equally to blame.

            I am not going to say that my plan is going to make a dramatic change to this situation; it would take everyone to make a change. Though I do believe that with the right information, with the truth, the masses will make the right decisions. Over the next few days I will be posting the sound files, transcriptions and personal impressions of interviews I will have conducted with some members of the local homeless population here in San Francisco. I will ask them questions about who they are, who their family is, how they believe they got ended up where they are, and what they want to say to the world. I do not think this will be earth shatteringly new information; I might have nothing interesting to give to those who read this report. Yet, it is not interesting? Fascinating? To know someone else’s story, someone who, by all accounts, you fear? I am interested in the story of people I know and love, I am interested in those I do not know, but to step into the life of someone society has turned its back on, that is truly an amazing experience. They deserve to tell their story and we deserve to know it.

#FitzFile