Austin Riverwalk - Homeless Memorial / Take on Homelessness

Not surprised that this meticulously maintained memorial to the homeless occupies a prominent spot on the riverwalk in Austin, being a liberal city.  But every city should have something like this.  It does say somewhere that the poor and destitute will always be with us, and Martin Luther King once pointed to a homeless individual and said to his entourage as they passed by, "Were it not for the grace of God, there go I!"  We are all potentially much closer to such a position than we think.  Especially here in America, where few individuals live within their means and depend on a weekly paycheck to live hand-to-mouth.  Out of a job suddenly, or something else happens without a financial or social safety net, combined with the mental health issues so pervasive in this country, and it's only so long before you're on the street because there is no place to go.  While Chenjean and I were working with the Impact Houston Church of Christ in the Fourth Ward we met and befriended several on the street who were formerly prosperous, white collar workers who simply fell on hard times and did not have the wherewithal to function normally in society.  Very sad, and scary.

Guess I've always had a curiosity about this population - you see them in every city with their signs on the corners or in cardboard shacks under bridges, shuffling down the street pushing shopping carts or at strip shopping centers asking for handouts.  They all have a story, and are valued and loved by the Good Lord just as much as any of us.

Once while in New York City, back in the 1980's, I came very close to fulfilling this curiosity.  In an effort to generate empathy with the homeless I had decided to just lay down on a bench in Central Park and spend the night, like this fellow, even though I had a hotel already booked across the Hudson in Union City, NJ.  I even had a place picked out close to the Columbus Circle in the southeast corner of Central Park.  But ultimately I chickened out, in part due to safety concerns and in part due to the fact that I would have been nothing but a faker, not really living and scrapping as they do to survive.

So those of us on the more fortunate side of life settle with erecting these monuments to bring light to their plight and at least ensure that they, as individuals, are not forgotten by their fellow beings.