Contrary to the way in which the media is portraying it, Central Florida actually has problems much larger than the recent \u201cnot guilty\u201d verdict in the George Zimmerman case.\u00a0 And one of the most significant and glaring dilemmas is the rising number of human beings who have no place to live and very little, if any, food to eat.\u00a0 In other words, a growing number of individuals who are what we have collectively classified as \u201chomeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
While overly ambitious newscasters clamoring for ratings continue to spoon-feed the drama of this high-profile Zimmerman murder trial to an audience all too willing to devote their free time and undivided attention to their television sets, an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people in the state of Florida are spending their days and nights on the streets, probably much more concerned, I presume, with where their next meal is coming from than the status of George Zimmerman\u2019s criminal case.<\/p>\n
I find it shocking that one criminal case can cause thousands of people across the United States to leave their homes and stand in solidarity to protest what they believe to be an injustice, but the fact that last year 633,782 people in the United States alone were without a place to call home does not even create a tiny ripple.<\/p>\n
Where is everybody?<\/p>\n
How are we choosing what is important to us\u2026and what is not?<\/p>\n
Is it that we assuming that someone else<\/i> is taking care of this?<\/p>\n
In the City of Orlando specifically, efforts by local activist groups to organize food offerings for our community\u2019s homeless population in downtown parks have been strategically and legally blocked by local government at every angle over the past several years.\u00a0 The city has designated blue boxes painted on the sidewalks where homeless individuals are permitted to ask for and receive money.\u00a0 If they do so outside the blue lines, they are promptly arrested.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t feed the hungry – except where it has been deemed legally acceptable.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t offer financial assistance to the poorest of poor – except where it has been deemed legally acceptable.<\/p>\n
And these people have nowhere to go \u2013 except where it has been deemed legally acceptable for them to go.<\/p>\n
Maybe I\u2019m wrong.\u00a0 Maybe we should and do live in a world where it truly is each man or woman for him or herself.\u00a0 Maybe those men and women standing on the street corner with signs pleading for money don\u2019t<\/i> deserve the extra dollar or two I have tucked in the drink holder of my car and I should just continue to act as though I do not even see them.\u00a0 Perhaps that seemingly able-bodied man IS perfectly capable of getting a job and I shouldn\u2019t enable his obvious choice not to<\/i> work<\/i> by throwing him a few bucks. \u00a0Perhaps I should question why<\/i> those souls who have come to share a portion of life\u2019s journey with me have not experienced their own abundance in the way that I have.\u00a0 After all, they must have done something<\/i> wrong <\/i>to get to this point and this place, right? \u00a0And finally, maybe it is entirely possible that the George Zimmerman trial is way more important than any of this, and that<\/i> is where I should be focusing my thoughts and energy, as thousands of others are choosing to do.<\/p>\n
I don’t think so.<\/p>\n
I have never been homeless.\u00a0 But I have had times in my own life where stretching $20 in the grocery store for a week\u2019s worth of meals for my family was a stark reality.\u00a0 And it is not difficult for me to recall many turning points in my life which pivoted upon a compassionate helping hand from someone else.\u00a0 So I\u2019m just noticing.\u00a0 I\u2019m just taking a closer look at what we as a society appear to be fixated on, what issues cause us take a stand, which events in life we choose to outwardly define ourselves by\u2026and which ones we do not.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m just noticing and wondering how we got here, why we are here, and asking: \u00a0What will it take to change it?<\/p>\n
\n“When someone enters your life unexpectedly,
\nlook for the gift that person has come to receive from you\u2026
\nI HAVE SENT YOU NOTHING BUT ANGELS.\u201d
\n“Conversations with God” – Book 2<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n