Behind the signs

The way it really is

• It is a sad thing when a person gets into such a mess that there seems to be no way out. It is a delicate situation that cannot be ignored. It can’t be blamed on anyone. That includes the person who lives that life. It took a homeless person’s life in the area where I lived for people to realize that when it’s cold, people can freeze to death. Now there are warming centers, but there needs to be more attention and less blaming for these persons.

• Sure, there are the ones that won’t get off the streets for whatever reason. But for those of us who are living a more comfortable life and not just simply surviving, let us remember this:

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• We don’t know what happened in the lives of the ones who appear dirty and grubby, or the true stories of the ones who we scowl at as we walk or drive by on the streets. What about the ones who may have a heart of gold and you’d never know it? How about the ones who would give the shirt off their back to you, or the ones who cry at night because they can’t sleep due to loneliness, hunger, or bitter cold? What about the ones who are so depressed that they just don’t care anymore and cry out silently for the help that is not written by a marker? Let us examine ourselves and then take a deep look inside those persons living one miserable day at a time, one long hour to the next and simply existing Behind the Signs.

Behind the signs

A dramatic true story by Kirk Toncray