Have we been conditioned to hate the homeless?

Call me crazy but it seems like folks have been conditioned to ignore their house being on fire. It also seems like a lot of people have been conditioned to hate poor people and it seems to be getting worse by the day.

Never in my life have I seen so many folks who are so willing to justify their own demise. You got rich oligarchs running around all over the place with very little accountability and there are folks who will defend those very same oligarchs as if they work for those people.

It's very weird as a black man to argue with white people about helping homeless white people and yet those same people will accuse me of hating white people when I disagree on a racial topic. I'll never forget helping a white guy named Dylan. He had a lot of mental health issues and was homeless. I made a video about it and allowed Dylan to use my platform to tell his story. I'll never forget some of the comments. People claimed I was "enabling" him by giving him food and giving him a ride whenever he needed it.

Since when is it "enabling" someone if I as a veteran decide that my service isn't fucking over just because I didn't re-enlist? What if I choose to take my livestock and give away meat to people? How have we become so apathetic and so heartless that we will give someone hell who is using their own hard work just to feed someone?

I remember Arnold Abbot. He was an old white guy and a WW2 veteran. He's the reason you can feed the homeless as SCOTUS said it was an expression of your free speech. He had to sue just to feed people. Cops came and harassed that feeble old man who was armed with nothing but a spatula. Arnold Abbot is my hero. I remember the disgusting comments on articles and videos at the time. You had people saying Arnold was "enabling" people. No, maybe he just fought evil before and just wanted to see some good in the world. If that's how a war veteran chose to live his life, then why wasn't he allowed to?

What's wrong with us? We are okay with billionaires siphoning tax dollars but you aren't okay with me or Arnold Abbot just wanting to make sure you don't starve? I'm not gonna lie. This bothers me a lot. I can understand people being mean or a bully. But this is cruelty and against a fellow human being. Cruelty is what I can't forgive or understand.

Times like these are the times that we need folks to be a brother's keeper. Sometimes, people end up homeless for a lot of reasons. You got women in domestic violence cases. You would be heartbroken at the amount of homeless minors. People lose their jobs and many are just one paycheck away from the poor house.

I refuse to accept this bullshit propaganda. That homeless guy digging through the garbage isn't my enemy. Maybe if the VA did a better job of helping homeless veterans, that guy wouldn't be dumpster diving. Maybe if we actually gave a damn about mental health, that gut wouldn't be eating a rotting Subway sandwich. I choose to think better of the poor and not judge them all as drug addicts and monsters.