One Reason I Think I Would Never Choose To Be Homeless For More Than A Few Nights!

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One Reason I Think I Would Never Choose To Be Homeless For More Than A Few Nights!

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Before deciding To EASILY Get Food, Shelter, And A Roof Over My Head Instead!

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Why People Choose To Live On The Streets!

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Note: This article is NOT what you think it will be.

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In a world of impossible house prices and where even the hardest working has to resort to food banks,

If you did find yourself so disenfranchised that you became homeless, chances are then, that you stuck in the cold open air for life!

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Totally pulled out of my Arse with no actual evidence,

I reckon your chances of being Brutally Raped, Beaten or Murdered on the Streets

Vs

Being Brutal, Raped, Beaten or Murdered in Prison

Are about the same.

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Except if you're Killed in Prison someone will have to do some paperwork,

While if you go “Missing” on the street, there is a good chance no one will notice.

It is Not a lot of extra meaning to your existence but at least it is something.

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They say that most people living rough are Drug addicts.

If this is true,

Then I imagine it is much easier to get drugs in prison than in the outside world.

(I say this with comic irony, but there is actually a chance that this might be true!)

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So, on balance, based on the above assumptions, Both are pretty similar existences.

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APART from in prison,

You get 3 meals a day

And

A bed with a roof over your head

And

You will be MUCH warmer!

DING! DING!

We have a winner!

Prison, on balance, is your best Tactical Choice!

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I REALLY hate the Cold!

I REALLY hate missing a meal!

If I Suddenly found myself sleeping rough.

Based on the assumptions I have made above,

I’d probably decide “Screw This” and rob one or two people at random to get locked up!

Of course, it would be nice to choose someone you felt Deserves it,

A Paedophile, or a Nazi/ Liberal (depending on personal politics.)

But at the End of the day, after a third missed meal and two, below-freezing, nights, it would no longer really mattered “who” anymore!

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Does that notion make me evil?

Or just honest?

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Before you judge me too harshly,

Exactly how much discomfort could you take before resorting to becoming evil?

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Most would steal from the company pension fund or even a loving trusting relative long before getting anywhere near the level of dire poverty, that is homelessness!

And all those people would have lied to themselves that “They had no choice”,

That they “Saw no other way!”

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Yes,

They DID have a choice!

Yes,

They DID see another way!

They just did not like what they saw!

They saw a smaller car, a loss of precious social status, or having to “get real”!

There is a big difference between the two!

So, they threw away all their morality and mislabelled it as a ' necessity '!

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The Homeless “CHOOSE” to ‘ live on the streets ’ because they have the decency not to go into a rage and simply start taking stuff that they need.

(Note there: I said NEED! NOT simply WANT!)

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Instead of joining the criminal fraternity of thieves, drug dealers, or resorting to extortion.

They refuse to victimise others.

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For many, because they are decent people, all the various ‘less moral’ options might not even have occurred to them!

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If some teenager is begging instead of stealing or mugging, then they Chose THAT!

That teenager CHOSE THAT

They CHOSE NOT to harm others!

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IF a large, well-trained war vet is living on the streets,

Instead of getting well paid by a loan shark to break legs, or by some protection racket to collect from victims, then it is because they CHOSE that!

That War Veteran CHOSE NOT to use his training to harm others!

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But we live in a sick twisted world, were gangs and criminals are idolised,

While those who refuse to become evil are treated with disgust and as less than human!

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SO, Yes, people DO “Choose” to ‘ live on the streets ’.

‘They’ DO “Choose” to beg and ask for handouts.

BECAUSE they have more, Honour, Grace, and Humanity than I think I can ever be capable of in the same situation!

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So How dare you look down upon them!

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We all deserve the occasional treat,

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Even the homeless.

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This is a true story,

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DISCLAIMER!

The story is based at local Morrisons in the centre of town.

However this is not in any way an attack on Morrison’s, they are in NO way responsible in my eyes for the privately held attitudes of individual members of staff.

I will happily shop there again,

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BUT

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It could have happened anywhere,

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It is a true story that just happens to have happened at Morrisons in Redcar.

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STORY START!

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Last November 2018, I and my family stopped there to shop,

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It was a bloody cold night and there happened to be a homeless man sitting crossed legged near (ish) the cash machines, begging.

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My kids immediately asked if they could buy the man a hot chocolate,

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(Because I try and teach my kids to give a dam for the world and the people in it!)

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So after we have shopped I went to the instant drinks dispensing machine to get a hot chocolate for the cold homeless man outside.

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But there are no paper cups, to put the hot drink in.

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Now obviously I do have mental health issues and the thought that happened, was probably a paranoid delusion in my own mind,

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But at that time, the first thing I thought was, (wrong or right)

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“Some bastard manager has taken away the paper cups to stop people buying the homeless man outside a hot drink until they can get him moved on!”

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Again, This was probably just me, being paranoid,

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So because I am a truly stubborn little shit,

I then go to the party section and buy for 3£ 60p some paper cups.

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I queue up at the tills and pay for them.

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I get the Hot Chocolate and leave the rest of the cups there for others to use,

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Then I go to the counter to pay for the hot chocolate,

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The woman at the till overheard be talking to my kids about why we had purchased the hot chocolate,

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The woman reaction was along the lines of,

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<Obvious this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>

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“Oh, he's not there now, he has been moved on.”

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Our family expressed a minor disappointment,

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Her reaction to that was,

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<Again! Obviously this only a general paraphrase, not a direct quote.>

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“You should not buy stuff for him anyway,”

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“He is a nuisance,”

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“He was in here earlier and spent his begging money for fags,”

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(For you Americans, that means he purchases some cigarettes.)

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I felt a bit stunned at the passion of her negative reaction and just left peacefully.

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FRENCH STEPS!

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There is an old French expression, which I am not going to even attempt to write, but roughly translated it is,

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“Spirit of the Stairway,”

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It is an expression that means the following,

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‘When you have nothing witty or cool to say at the time, but think of the perfect comeback comment much later, when it is too late to use it!"

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This is my “Spirit of the Stairway,”

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This is what I wished I had said at the time,

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“If you are cold and fed up outside would you not want to treat yourself?”

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“After work, tonight are you not going to treat yourself to anything?

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“Not a chocolate bar, or a TV soap opera?”

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“A bubble bath or a favourite blanket?”

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“Why can't someone give their morale a little boost and try and comfort themselves?!”

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“Poor sods life must be bloody miserable in this weather!”

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“What kind of monster are you?”

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But I didn’t.

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I wish I had,

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But I did not.

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EMPATHY IS NOT THE SAME AS GULLIBLE!

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I am not 'an innocent', naive or stupid,

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I know there is a good 60% to 70% chance that he actually has a home or is a drug user,

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But I am not responsible for his actions,

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I can only ever be responsible for my own!

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Any degree of chance over 4% to my mind makes it worth a punt at trying to make this totally shitty world slightly better.

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(For Americans, By Punt, I mean “Worth a Gamble”!)

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If he is a lazy con man, then that is on him!

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But as skint as I very often am,

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(Translation for Americans, “Skint” = “Broke”)

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I am still not going to begrudge a cold potentially homeless person with a hot chocolate if I have the time and can spare the cash.

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I am not so skint (yet) that such an action would financially “break me”

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So it is worth a punt,

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I am not ever going to make any big significant changes to our world,

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Very few of us will

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But we can all aim for a flow of little positive “Butterfly Effects”

And hope all the little good bits somehow add up to mitigate, offset or somehow reduce how our crap our world now is!

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If we cannot let ourselves have faith enough to believe that,

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Then why bother doing any recycling at all?

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As this is a true story there is not a clever witty or smart ending.

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All that is left is to declare in a loud voice,

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“PEOPLE ARE NOT THINGS!”

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I hope that poor woman behind the counter manages to find some sort of soul in that dried up husk!

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Because although we in the UK have more safeguards that a USA citizen would have

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We are all still far closer to sleeping on the streets than most of you realise!

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