When Will We Take Care Of Our Own?

by Mark Horvath · 2010-02-07 12:24:00 UTC
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I want you feel a little bit of what I am feeling so maybe we will all wake up and start taking care of our neighbors.

Last year the most horrifying photo for the homeless community was of a dead homeless man frozen in the ice in an abandoned building in Detroit. Over the summer I happened to be visiting Detroit and drove by that building. I was told that the people who found that man's body decided to play a game of hockey rather than report it.

This year's indelible image might be of the homeless frostbite victim in Flint, Michigan. Yesterday someone posted a link on InvisiblePeople.tv's Facebook page to an article about Stephen Frye, who lost both of his legs and one arm to frostbite after passing out in an abandoned building he called home.

I am about to visit Alaska, where a dozen homeless people died on the streets last year. In Salt Lake City, 58 homeless people died in 2009. Just two weeks ago, three homeless people perished while sleeping outside in Santa Barbara, California. Wherever you live in this great country of ours, people are dying outside.

How many people have to die on the streets before we wake up and start taking care of our own communities?

Photo credit: Ryan Garza/The Flint Journal

Mark Horvath is an activist for the homeless. He vlogs at invisiblepeople.tv and blogs at hardlynormal.com. He was formerly homeless in Hollywood.
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