Homeless is an adjective…

Perhaps that’s a difficulty some might have with the People who are homeless. Homeless is not a pronoun like he or she or me or thee or we. It’s like when somebody is called an “intellectual” and usually in a condescending way. It’s an adjective that means “of the mind” and is almost synonymous with “mental”. There’s so such group as “The Homeless” equally as there’s no such group as “the mentals” or “the beautifuls” or “the bads” or “the Uglies”. (although one of my neighbors in El Paso used to call her kids “the uglies”)

It’s a semantic trap that spirals downward and leads to garish and poorly constructed headlines such as “The Homeless problem” where people who are homeless become degenerated and demoted to the status of a “problem”. You know, that’s really flattering and of course great for a persons morale to be described as a “problem”. When you combine that with the notion that all the homeless people are mentally ill, or criminals, or druggies, which has been a constant theme in the Propaganda Parade, just think for a moment… you would call, perhaps, somebody who is mentally ill by a term that denotes he’s not Human and furthermore his existence is a problem? To whom, exactly, are the homeless people a Problem?

The “problems” attributed to the homeless People are blown far out of proportion in an effort to demonize the People. To make them not just helpless targets, but Sinister and Menacing helpless targets.

A pollution problem that’s been in existence for over a decade at the very least and has it’s more obvious roots in the underfunded and undermaintained water delivery, sewage, stormwater and water purification systems with which the Wealthy People have chosen to burden our city. (and everybody downstream from us, a land area that covers about half the nation.)

Human droppings and dog droppings that are far too concentrated to be caused by a group smaller than the population of any of the massive Apartment Complexes in town.

Then there’s the notion that the visibility of poor People causes problems. That would be a matter of perception and that, from a perspective of a bigot. Why would wealthy people seek to hide the effects of their Great and Glorious economic system? One would think they would be proud of it, at least to hear or read their boasts of how wonderful the system is… to the slimmer-by-the-day minority of the population who have profited by the “system”.

One would also think that a prospective Major Employer might look upon the desperation of the Homeless PEOPLE and see them as a human resource. But then, we’ve long ago lost the title of “human” in the resource list. We’re now referred to as “the Workforce”.

To be bought and sold as casually as any other commodity, and of course, owned entirely by the Wealthy Citizens.
Resenting it becomes a gateway to being judged as “angry” or “mad” (the two terms are not interchangeable except in rude usage, a failure to impart basic language skills to “the Workforce” when they’re in school and being fed lies about Equal opportunity and rights)

By the way, calling somebody who is justifiably angry “mad” or “crazy” or mentally or emotionally inferior in any way, and called that by some smug fool who is trying to convince the person that he’s superior to the other… there’s a word for that too, in English, it’s called “goading” and is often seen as attempting to provoke one to acts of violence. Usually not a smart idea since the ones who do such goading are generally speaking, emotionally incapable of learning the discipline needed to actually survive acts of violence.

This was a free of charge, gratuitous gift of an English Lesson. Since many who would read it only speak one language anyway, they should at least polish their skills in that one language.