This morning driving through the shitty
county town near where I live, I drove past a homeless man. I knew he was
homeless due to his matted hair, untamed beard dirty out of date clothes and
his peculiar mannerisms. I decided to go back home that way after completing my
errands to make sure that this was in fact a homeless man and not some hipster
in much need of a wash.
I drove back down the street to see the man
a measly 30 yards from where I’d originally spotted him. He was sat on wall
frantically looking around and chatting with himself. It became obvious that
this poor man was struggling with some metal health issues. Now there was no
strong lager in sight but its possible that alcohol maybe played apart in this
mans unfortunate state, that said most pissed heads have already started
drinking on the streets by 8:30 a.m. if they are punctual drunks that is.
Now I did not stop to see if I could help
him out in some way, which I would have liked to, but fact of the matter is I’m
skint myself and that is the only reason I did nothing. Sounds like I’m trying
to justify it to myself and maybe I am I mean I could have ushered him in the
direction of some clinic or something that may of gotten him the help he
needed. But instead I drove on, I put the kettle on made myself a coffee and
sat down and straight away thought about this poor man and the system that
“works” and how it has failed him and how I as a human sort of failed him as
well. It reminded me of a time; in fact the only time I’ve ever used the London
underground. So I’m sat there on the tube surrounded by middle aged white men
in suits and women in their smartest knee length skirts and blouses when a
little old lady literally walked down the carriage and asked very politely for
some money. Now her plea for money was accompanied by a bit of a sob story of
which I’ve blacked out, as I’m sure if I remembered it, it would really haunt
me to this day. I sort of recall it being about needing money for somewhere to
sleep, there may of even been a child involved but it was a long time ago and I
have done a lot of drinking to forget shit like that in my life. When she’d
finished her little sob story and held out her frail little hand I looked
around at people who really could spare a couple of quid and I watched them
avoid her like she wasn’t there. Looking anywhere but in this poor old lady’s
eyes. Now little old me from small county town probably should have done
something but little old me from small county town was scared incase this was a
scam or incase I pulled my wallet out on the underground and all of a sudden
found myself at the bottom of a dog pile of youths who in turn emptied my
pockets and left me with no money to get home nor a phone to inform anyone of
where I was. But what really gets me is the fact that this helpless little old
woman seeing that no one was going to give her anything, thanked us anyway and
moved on. She was probably genuine and I probably let her down as I did today
with the homeless man. I understand the people on in the carriage for not
giving her anything as if you encounter a similar thing everyday on your daily
commute it must get a little annoying and at the end of the day you can’t give
money to all of them as you would probably have to get another job to fund your
homeless giving habit, which in itself could escalate and leave you broke and
homeless in some sort of ironic circle of events. These events do however leave
me to question the state of care in this country. That some one in need doesn’t
get the duty of care they deserve as a basic human right. At the end of the day
the reason that these people don’t get the help they need is due to money, that
five letter word that controls everything and everyone. From lack of NHS drop
in centers to understaffed and underpaid mental healthcare professionals to the
fact that most people don’t have a lot of disposable income to help others.
Unfortunately this complicated matter has
know clear cut solution, nor does it appear to be getting any better while
nothing more is being done.
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