it’s cold out there!

this week the public were made aware of a situation happening in our little town of 5,000. for the third time this year (we are only into february, right?)  it came up on a facebook page of a local radio station. some of our homeless people’s tents have been burned and the only articles they owned, destroyed. humans are quick to assume… about anything… even i had questions… but it really came down to the fact that some people chose to burn and destroy the only items that these people had.

someone who had heard about this wanted to know why these people were homeless. to which they replied that it wasn’t the questioner’s business to know. then the assumptions began.

the victims had not done any damage to anyone else’s property, as far as anyone knew.  so why couldn’t they expect to have a warm place to sleep, without fear of other people destroying it? oh, how i wished someone had compassion and showed kindness.

a local radio station as well as cbc radio listened to the story of one of the people affected by the fires. it was at this point that the red cross heard about the situation, and they quickly provided a new tent and a couple of other items required. i was so pleased to see them meet the need. i’ve heard of them helping in foreign countries, or in places where disasters hit, but never have i heard of them helping in this way.

it’s hard to see people hurt and not be able to meet their immediate needs. however, i did what i could, trying to make a way for the person assuming they knew the reasons and solutions to homelessness, while trying to not put them down for not understanding it all.

hopefully the people who did the damage get caught, and will learn from this. my heart aches for the homeless, and so i will go on… finding good people who want to make a difference in our community, by allowing us to host the drop-in-centre and serve soup throughout the week.

d