FOLLOW YOUR HEART

In response to an article in today’s North Platte Telegraph:

It is unfair to paint all homeless/transients with the same brush.  People tend to lump them together into the drug, drinking, stealing, laziness category or pass judgment of why they are homeless or why they are standing on the corner holding a sign. There is a misconception and stereotype that the homeless suffer from mental illness or are substance abusers. There are people with high paying jobs that live in nice houses that also suffer from mental illness and are substance abusers. Does that make one better than the other? Or one less important than the other? Regardless of their circumstances or choices they are human beings.

The article states that 46% of homeless live with severe mental illness or substance abuse disorders. If that statistic is accurate that leaves 54% of those that do not. How does it benefit our society to only give to the ‘deserving’ or the ‘poor’? And who are we to judge? 

It’s a tough coin to flip but when you follow your heart it will tell you more about who you are as a person than about the person standing on the street holding a sign.