We’re treating homeless like the enemy

Things are exactly as they are supposed to be, the evidence being that that’s how things are. To say otherwise is to argue against reality. To ask why is to move beyond five sensory analysis, supposing that deeper meanings exist.

From that beyond we might extrapolate that things are the way they are to teach us something about a situation, while our reaction to the situation is teaching us something about ourselves.

Homelessness has inched upward since the 1980s, rising and falling but trending higher. We could look for what this is teaching us about the trend and its causes.

We could look at our personal and collective (institutional) reactions to homelessness, which hasn’t been to examine trends and causes, but rather to decide who the enemy is. In our heyday we had great enemies. Now we have addicted people and homeless people and poor people, and our reaction to these groups is punishment.

Homelessness is the pinnacle of vulnerability, theirs of course, but it reminds us of our own. We punish them for this reminder. Our love of guns tells us all we need to know about our hatred of vulnerability and by extension, the homeless. The institutions of capitalism trample the vulnerable on our behalf: city halls, police forces, economic policies and institutions.

If only these punishing policies against the refugees of capitalism had benefits like less homelessness, more livable wages and increased shelter supply. If only these policies made us feel less vulnerable.

— Don Fultz, Oroville