PHOTO/CHRIS WALKER
DENVER — I am a citizen of a country that does not yet exist. In Denver, the Samaritan House, a shelter program of Catholic Charities, threw pregnant women out into the freezing rain. Two women who were sleeping outside on the sidewalk adjacent to Samaritan House had miscarriages. One was expecting twins. I have twins.
My sister asked me why they miscarried, I told her it was because the unborn thought better of coming into this world. The Samaritan House is literally pressing trespassing charges against these women and all homeless people without shelter (they have designated an 18-inch line along their property so that if you rest up against their wall you can be arrested.) I am a citizen of a country that has chosen to be blind. I am begging you, America, for the sake of these three martyred babies. Wake up!
I am begging. We see them begging, disheveled, and wonder what happened to them. We are invisible, subhuman. Don’t be so sure. The cost of disassociation is your very humanity. We are not begging you for food or your pocket change, we are begging you to remember that you are human, too, and that we are your neighbors. We are your gift, inviting you to wake up. We beg you to wake up.
When I was homeless, it was not you who saved me, but the homeless. It is the homeless who are the most compassionate human beings on the planet. Who feels it knows it. The Jesus I pray to says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
But how would you know if any of this is true? If you watch the local news, I am sorry, but they are lying. If you speed past the folks on the corner, how could you listen long enough to know their stories? If you listen to our mayor, well … I won’t go there. But be careful: “You take the red pill, you leave Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes and we welcome you back to your humanity.” Until then, you will find us at Larimer Street and Park Avenue next to the pregnant woman under the blue tarp.
I help. My reasons are mine own. I know others who are just as compassionate, regardless of their situations. What can we do that will be more useful? (That is not a rhetorical question.)