93 souls
Sunday a.m. I woke at 5 a.m. to gear up and head out to shoot the annual Memorial service for the Homeless who died on the streets of Austin last year. There were 93 of them.
I learned that if you die on the streets of Austin, and you are penniless and without a family, you are treated to a burial in the pauper field, in East Austin.
They don't allow type of service, they won't pray over your body, they just bury you, in your custom-sized cardboard box.
It was cold Sunday morning. And, as usual, I tried to go out with just a long sleeved t-shirt and a sweater. I'm a native Texan and it seems to take awhile for me to realize that Fall has arrived. So, I shivered and in my shivering I thought about the people that shiver every night, blanketless, coatless, warm dinner-less. It really wasn't so bad.
As the names of those who died were read, the attendees placed carnations on the Homeless Memorial, trying to make up for the simple quiet burial the city gave them, saying the names of these strangers and friends aloud one last time, remembering they were here with us once.
Alan Graham who runs Mobile Loaves and Fishes and Richard Troxell who runs House the Homeless are two of the leaders in the Austin homeless movement. They are both well educated, nice, gentlemen. They seem egoless, focused on what they see as righting a deep injustice.
Alan said something that kept me thinking long after the memorial. He said that we've lost our sense of community. During the depression, the community took care of each other, they brought people in for dinner, gave them odd jobs, took care of each other. They buried each other according to their religion.
Now, we're mostly well fed and well 401k-d, yet we forget they we are part of a town of people, that we all share a city. We've lost that personal sense of neighbors and community, created a divisiveness between those who live in homes and those who roam.
Many of the homeless are mentally ill and many are disabled. It should embarrass our community that people who are so ill are left out in the cold. We can do better.
I learned that if you die on the streets of Austin, and you are penniless and without a family, you are treated to a burial in the pauper field, in East Austin.
They don't allow type of service, they won't pray over your body, they just bury you, in your custom-sized cardboard box.
It was cold Sunday morning. And, as usual, I tried to go out with just a long sleeved t-shirt and a sweater. I'm a native Texan and it seems to take awhile for me to realize that Fall has arrived. So, I shivered and in my shivering I thought about the people that shiver every night, blanketless, coatless, warm dinner-less. It really wasn't so bad.
As the names of those who died were read, the attendees placed carnations on the Homeless Memorial, trying to make up for the simple quiet burial the city gave them, saying the names of these strangers and friends aloud one last time, remembering they were here with us once.
Alan Graham who runs Mobile Loaves and Fishes and Richard Troxell who runs House the Homeless are two of the leaders in the Austin homeless movement. They are both well educated, nice, gentlemen. They seem egoless, focused on what they see as righting a deep injustice.
Alan said something that kept me thinking long after the memorial. He said that we've lost our sense of community. During the depression, the community took care of each other, they brought people in for dinner, gave them odd jobs, took care of each other. They buried each other according to their religion.
Now, we're mostly well fed and well 401k-d, yet we forget they we are part of a town of people, that we all share a city. We've lost that personal sense of neighbors and community, created a divisiveness between those who live in homes and those who roam.
Many of the homeless are mentally ill and many are disabled. It should embarrass our community that people who are so ill are left out in the cold. We can do better.
Labels: homeless
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