What Can One Do?

Magic in Austin, Texas

One of the things I used to do whenever I did my traveling is go to where the local people would say is the poorest area of the cities I would be in. I've always felt that if you really want to see how bad a place is, you look and see how the most impoverished people get treated.

So much of that belief structure really stems from the fact that a city can have a very high rate of average income, look nice in all the areas that people want to frequent, but if the poor are so segregated and have no safety net then what it really means is that the moment you don't fit into the safe confines of wealth, you'll be struggling to survive in very drastic kind of ways.

Los Angeles, when I was there last around 2010, is a great example of this. All the areas that were touristy or all the places where the wealthiest would frequent were these lush, beautiful places. But then a couple blocks away, you'd be in an area where people were sleeping in alleyways. All those people who saw the appeal of Hollywood's fame and fortune, all the opportunities that a place like LA would host, but so few people actually make it there - I would hate to know how many extremely talented people were lost to the streets in a place like that.

I lived in Albuquerque around the same timeframe as the last time I visited Los Angeles. That city, at the time, felt poor everywhere I went. Granted, I was poor while I lived there so I didn't frequent anywhere with any regularity, but I distinctly remember everywhere I went there was the potential for homeless people sleeping on the side of buildings. There was one time I was eating at a Wendy's and a homeless person was clipping their toenails at one of the tables inside the restaurant. Another time, police had pulled all the items out of a homeless person's backpack and strewn them all over the ground in front of him. The man had shoes on that had holes all the way through the soles, his backpack was tattered and torn badly, and all that was laying out in front of his empty bag were various articles of clothes. I couldn't imagine what the police were looking for within the bag itself, but as best as I could tell there wasn't anything incriminating.

The thing that actually stopped me from continuing this trend of mental documenting within the poor areas of cities I visited was when I moved to Jacksonville, Florida. I was told what the poorest area of Jacksonville was by someone who was clearly more racist than they were understanding of what I was asking. They pointed me in the direction of an African American neighborhood in which, upon entering the neighborhood, people began grabbing at their waists and watching me drive down the road. Jacksonville, for everything it was, still had some deep rooted segregation taking place. I learned very quickly not to go into certain neighborhoods as a white man, but social normalcies are more to blame than anything else. When the primary reason a white person enters a neighborhood is to create problems, people are going to protect themselves.

Which, that will lead me into a side tangent. The only times I've actually been afraid of being shot in my life were by white people. I once had a gun drawn on me because another person lost a street race to the guy I was passenger to. The other two times were white cops who came to my car window with their guns drawn, a very odd thing to have happen when one of those times was speeding three miles per hour over the speed limit, and another one of those times was because the speed limit dropped from 55 to 35 before going back up to 55 within a half mile stretch of road, and I didn't see the speed limit sign. That second time I got put in handcuffs and thrown into the back of the cop car while he proceeded to search my car and tell me that he could give me a felony charge for a 3 inch blade on a pocket knife I used for work. I don't carry a pocket knife any longer because of this.

But to get back on topic - there is also the opposite that happens in some places. Like Flagstaff, Arizona, which is definitely a place where the wealthy reside, but every time I've visited and asked to go to the "poor" area of the city, its never anything drastic I find there. Homeless shelters seemingly take good care of the impoverished. There is an alcohol problem, for sure, but that can be found anywhere, let us be honest. Everyone needs a vice to cope with their life, even those who have a "made" life. And to be honest, if you're a homeless person who isn't getting lost in drugs and alcohol to escape the things you've got to deal with when the most simplistic of necessities aren't being met, then I commend them. I couldn't imagine the mental fortitude they would need to have in order to endure that kind of lifestyle without a serious escape.

The one thing that all my travels did teach me in the realm of poverty in this country, though, is that all of our impoverished deserve better. What is the point of a society if it isn't to help lift all of those within the confines of said society? Yet, we have, within this country, people who blame the poor for being poor without having an inkling of a notion that they are just a couple bad days away from joining them. Or, perhaps, that is what bothers them so much about seeing the poor and the homeless, at least on a subconscious level. They can see just how close they are flying to them having to endure their pain and suffering, and it is too much for them to truly face.

I doubt it, though. More than likely, they are just selfish and hate the idea of having to share space with people who they deem as not having worked hard enough to survive a society that is hell bent on destroying all of us. Those very same people who have voted in our current president, the very same who cannot even begin to understand the deep complexities of economics and society in general. Or the ones who gain the most from poverty.

Either way, I wish it didn't have to be this way. I want better for this country. I want better for the world. Alas, this is what we have, a world in which we are punishing ourselves due to a lack of intelligence, a lack of reasonable education, and a lack of desire for improving either one of those things as a whole.

Until next time, keep reading.

-Dustin S. Stover