| No matter the venue, no matter the group, regardless of their level of ignorance or expertise, the ideas, theories, and misconceptions seem to be universal. |
 Photo by Eric M.V.“They choose to live on the street.” “It’s a mental health issue.” “They need a big park outside of town with trash pick-up and toilets.” “We need more affordable housing and rent control.” “We can use vacant government buildings to get them off the street.” “Their families should do more.” These are the familiar statements—the opinions of the blindfolded. |
| I had a great Q&A session with a faith-based counseling group in Tempe earlier. The questions were predictable, sure, but usually I have to put the topic in front of a few hundred people to get them. These folks care about people; the concern was evident immediately. That was nice. What would be really nice is if I could go to a place, lay out my findings, and not teach anybody anything… because they already knew. When this knowledge becomes common knowledge, things will change. I’m sure of it. How do we get the information out to the general public? I feel like the news media should have something to do with it. It’s a hot topic, fiercely debated, and grossly misunderstood. People hate seeing homelessness for lots of different reasons—they’re upset by the misery, the wasted potential, the failure of society, the failure of leadership, the garbage, the hopelessness, the danger, the normalization, the crime. Someone asked me today if I have a volunteer base to help with the End of the Tunnel. Yes, and no. The network is there to help identify candidates and available services, but field workers, not so much. It’s dangerous out there, and I’m apprehensive about inviting anyone out to meet face-to-face with strangers who are prone to using serious drugs. That may be an obstacle for journalists who want to do deep-dive stories into the world of homelessness, but don’t have the backing to risk entering that world. It’s crazy because we have war correspondents in the Middle East and Ukraine, but an overpass on I-10? Heck no, that’s too dangerous! And now we have carfentanyl—a drug that’s 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine. Isn’t that wonderful? Wait, it gets better! It’s also in a powder form, so it can be transmitted on objects like paper money. I know what you’re thinking. Ok, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but think about this: why does something like this even exist? Yeah, it’s an elephant tranquilizer. Let that sink in. |