Rachel and her Children essay Essay

We instruct them almost everywhither We can chance on them around the corner, and we see their vestige from far away. We resolve to avoid looking directly into their eyes, and we pretend we did non hear them when they talk to us. We manner of walking around the block to avoid them, and walk faster to leave them behind. These community that we consider to be invisible atomic number 18 actu in ally dispossessed human macrocosms. Homelessness in America remains an exhaust of deep engage in the 21st century. With extinct a permanent roof over their head, these wad seek refuge in various places much(prenominal) as dispossessed shelters and tent cities. If they argon fortunate they will find a safe place to stay the night. The less fortunate ones ar forced to spend their night in public places that are unguaranteed and unfit to sleep in. Although dispossessedness is not a new issue to pull through about, in Rachel and her children, Jonathan Kozol brings us into an e ntirely new world.A world where the roofless are not just figures with hands held out asking for give up change. He brings us into the lives of these roofless story by story field of study by case sharing his personal interviews with these unfortunate community. What Kozol describes deeply in the book throughout true incredible stories goes beyond our expectation. Especially in chapter 5, Distancing ourselves from pain and tears which is one of the center of the book, the author raises more apprehension about our attitudes toward poor homeless state. What Kozol means by distancing in the chapter is that people do really parcel out about homelessness. They do understand and looking at guilty about what homeless people are suffering day by day. Because of the guiltiness, they try to realise to a distance by themselves to geld the responsibility for these homeless people.Instead of blaming the reckless negligence of the governments welfare system, people end up blaming ho melessness for creating their cause destitution. In almost ways, it is surely that most Americans would withdraw a certain enhanced reason toward homeless people. However, not many another(prenominal) of us do truly care about them, hope to k promptly what the story is behind them becoming homeless, and try to help them get out of their dark side. We do have compassion, merely our compassion is not big enough to connect us nigher to homeless people. redden though we feel very bad whenever we hear about the poor people, every one of us does have a distance ourselves from homelessness.The first thing that come to my mind and other peoples when hazarding about homeless people is that all of them are panhandlers, those who are mentally unstable, and victims of dumping by greedy hospital or drug addiction. Last summer I came to visit my friend who lives in d suffert sustain San Francisco. As I was walking down to the bus station, I remember passing an old homeless woman who was asking people for money at the corner of the station. Being careful not to fit her, I dropped a few spare coins in his hand. Automatically assumptive that the money I gave her would be employ for drugs or alcohol, I looked upon her with contempt. aft(prenominal) reading this book, I understand that the woman I saw at the corner of the station could have, at one time, been just like me. Even though being a little proud of just doing something good, I found that I (as well as other people) fail to create a distance from homelessness.At the beginning, Kozol opens his book with the story of Peter and Megan who are living in the Martique homeless shelter. Before ending up being homeless, they had a happy life with their five children. Peter did plumbing and carpentry. He was also a contri exactlying and working. After a fire ruined the house and all of Peters collection of besidesls he had construct up for years, Peters family had to struggle in the Martique. By interruption with this story, Kozol gives the readers a new vision of homeless people. Stereotypes of the homeless as individuals struggle with mental health issues or substance addictions no wanter hold. They apply to be normal members in the society just like us, but for some reasons cause them to become destitute.Kozols book documents how many homeless were recently employed, cast into homelessness by financial misfortune such(prenominal) as ongoing unemployment, staggering medical bills or medical disabilities. Many homeless people are in their existing condition of living on the streets because of being born poor, while many other homeless people used to have money, fame and property before but lost it all in some big personal or external event. We have never thought what lead those people into their dark sides. We are too hasty to put everyone into the corresponding category. Because of that failure in thinking, we naturally haoma an invisible distance that sepa esteems us from homeless people.There are hundreds of maintenances which could be called typical of human needs existing inside of us such as going broke, foreclosure on house, humiliation from public speaking, running out of food, or major disasters. However, a life that is financially is unsecure, and in a depressed economy, the fear of being homeless seems to be considered as the biggest concern for human beings. For those who have been homeless and are now off the street, broadly they promise themselves never to let that happen again. Many people now fear being homeless who are close to foreclosure. Too many people bought at the top of the market or re-financed with variable rate deals. Therefore, this fear of being homeless is a real fear.When people are scared of something so much that they cannot face it, they tend to ignore it in order to release the fear that they are going through. We all populate that homelessness console exists. We also get it on that that the number of people who stay in t he street as their home, lack of food, tremble because of cold, and carry on so many disease is increasingly higher in every states of the U.S. Since we fear of being homeless, we try to disregard the existence of homelessness. We even blame homeless people for creating their own situation. In order to push away our own nightmare, we unintentionally create the distance between ourselves and homelessness.Not simply do we eliminate our nightmare by blaming the homeless people but also we evade our responsibility by making an excuse that in that respect is no quick fix for erasing homelessness in America. That means people who are living in the street have to wait a long time to get a house. Most of us usually think that we already gave a hand for helping homelessness by the tax we contain to the government every year, and that the government themselves have had programs for low-income Americans. However, we do not know that the money the government gives up to help poor people is j ust over a tenth of the federal budget (131).Yet, that ten percentage of the budget was cut into one third by the Reagan budget cuts. In other words, when that amount of money reaches to the homeless people, it means nothing. The question here is What is the rest of the money gone kind of of using to help homeless? The rest of billions of dollars is used for national defense such as military, weapons, and alleged(prenominal) wars Without knowing this, we blame homeless people for creating their own destitution instead of the government.The book Rachel and her children incredibly tells stories of homeless people. Each person has his or her own different circumstances, but generally these people used to have the same normal live before they became homeless. Many of us would sympathize with homeless people on the street, but only few truly want to help them get out of their extreme circumstances. In some ways, we still draw ourselves a distance from homelessness either because of our guiltiness or our own fear of being homeless one day. When we confidently give up our little spare coins to homeless people without worrying if they are used for drugs or alcohol, that is when we little by little erase our distance and get closer to these poor homeless human beings.View as multi-pages