George of the Concrete Jungle
Angry Barney
Seeing those in power bully the vulnerable.
concrete jungle
noun
: a modern city or urban area filled with large buildings and regarded especially as a harshly competitive, unwelcoming, or dangerous place
- Merriam Webster’s Dictionary
One could argue that San Diego is far from an area that people could find unwelcoming or dangerous. But regardless of where you live, life on the streets is not safe. There are people doing the cruelest of things to those who are unhoused like violently attacking them or murdering them (story courtesy of NBC San Diego).
There’s many causes of homelessness. It’s not always that they are hooked on drugs or mentally ill. In fact, mental illness and substance abuse only accounts for small percentage of homelessness in the state of California, according to a Los Angeles Times article. Per the Benioff Study from University of California San Francisco, 1 in 5 homeless people are seeking treatment for substance abuse but cannot access the resources. 25% of homeless people report never having used drugs in their life while 35% say their drug use decreased after becoming homeless. The bulk of homelessness is caused by lack of affordable housing to lower income residents exacerbated by corporate greed, price fixing and manipulation of the market to keep the supply of housing low — but some of us aren’t ready to have that conversation.
I can’t believe the things I hear being said about the homeless population by strangers and some people I know. Having been made homeless by my family as a child, it strikes me to the core. You don’t know these people from Adam. Every one regardless of status in life has a story of how they got there. There’s more benefit in talking to people and actively listening rather than judging. After we got on our feet, my mother who worked as a shuttle driver at the airport always taught me to tip well and show empathy to those less fortunate whether that includes giving a homeless person what she could out of tip money she needed or offering a kind word to a stranger — she was always teaching me to do what you can because even if you don’t have a lot, life can always be worse. How does one show gratitude? By giving.
I’ve had some interesting experiences with homeless people including one random unhoused lady walking into a taco shop I was at with my mother when I was 15. I was playing an arcade game. She walked up to me, stared at me and then hugged me. I hugged her back. Then she smiled and walked away. My mom asked what happened and I said “I guess she just needed a hug”. My mother asked if I was scared when it happened. I said “For whatever reason, no”.
This brings us to 2008. I was 20-years-old and working at a rental car company at the airport. One random day walking back from the Shell gas station on my 15-minute break, I met a kind homeless man I didn’t know would change my day-to-day at work. His name was George.
It’s amazing what can happen waiting to cross the busy intersection of Pacific Highway and Laurel Street. I was coming back with $20 worth of snacks because I had a crazy busy job as a return agent and I burned a shit ton (I’m Californian) of calories. I struck up a conversation with him while waiting for traffic to die down to cross the traffic island. I asked him how panhandling was going and he said it wasn’t that lucrative that day. I don’t know if he was telling me the truth or not but I offered him an extra bottle of water I bought, a snack and $5 that I had in my purse. I had a job. I was in college and I lived at home. That wasn’t going to hurt me. Little did I know Bush 43’s Great Recession was on the way.
Over the next few months, I grew closer to George. I started actively looking for him when I’d be on my breaks just to say hi or if I had extra cash, I’d buy him lunch. You want Subway, George? I got you. You want some SunChips with your 6-inch? You got it. It’s 90 degrees outside? Let me get you a drink too. I can’t take all of the credit because my mom would sometimes bring me lunch as she worked down the street from me. She had no idea I was feeding a homeless man. So, I guess some days I saved money.
The people on my job couldn’t understand my kindness towards George. People made jokes and gossipped. I guess kindness is a foreign concept to some folks, these days its called “woke”.
One day, I ran into George and asked him if he wanted something on my way to the gas station. He said to me, “You have been so kind to me. I had a good day today. Let me buy you lunch”. I said “You’re homeless. I can’t take money from a homeless man. How would that look? I have a home, job and car. I can’t take that. I appreciate it. But I gave because I wanted to”. He said “Now I am” and shoved the money in my pocket. Assault (I’m totally kidding).
One day I wanted to bring my friend who I bought lunch for into the breakroom to wash his hands before he ate and my coworkers threw a fit. He’s human. What’s wrong with him washing his hands? His fingernails looked like he hadn’t washed his hands in years. My coworkers did not want a homeless man to come into the back area. Needless to say, a supervisor had a talk with me after the incident. I conceded. Shortly after that, my coworkers were having a pow-wow in the breakroom when I came into work to clock in. One says to me with a smirk, “Your homeless friend got arrested last night”. I said “What? George?!”. I thought they were fucking with me so I stormed out of the parking lot to see if I could see him on the corner. He wasn’t there.
For a week, I hoped I would see him walking to the gas station. I didn’t. Until one day he showed up and I ran to him. I said “George! I’m so happy to see you. What happened?”. He had an eye patch like someone had injured his eye. He told me another homeless person, a female and he had gotten into an altercation where she attacked him. He stated he would never hit a woman. I can’t speak to whether it’s true or not. I do know that from what I experienced, he seemed like a kind and gentle soul who I didn’t mind feeding from time to time. After that, I didn’t see him anymore but to this day he hasn’t left my mind.
Our friendship was only a few months long, but I got to know him in that time period. I don’t remember asking how he wound up on the street. I may have but that part escapes me as I’m typing this. I do remember how I had a genuinely good time talking with him and it made me feel good to do something nice for someone else. It made me feel good to make him feel like there are caring people. There are people who won’t look down their nose at you. There are people that want to help. There are people that want to provide hope.
Fast forward to 2025. I feel like the light that I strive to be in this chaotic world we now live in is being continually tested by the climate of the country. People voted with a lack of empathy and conscience. They voted with misinformation. They voted to make vulnerable populations even more vulnerable because of eggs. They couldn’t see outside of a carton of eggs, or so they claim so much that they voted for social security to be cut hurting the elderly and the disabled, federal employees to lose their jobs en masse, USAID being dismantled (combats AIDS globally, famine and provides billions in subsidies to US farmers), dismantling the Department of Education which will destroy underprivileged communities and rural areas, putting the Affordable Care Act (Healthcare) in jeopardy and gutting the program federal program to help combat homelessness.
The lack of empathy in this timeline is astounding. I noticed during the first couple of weeks of the Trump administration people were not as angry because it wasn’t affecting them. But as these far reaching consequences have started to reach people’s doors and the stock market is tanking — they are getting angrier at him and Elon Musk (see Tesla fires). All I can say is, hopefully this will teach people to stop being selfish and think what is for the collective good of our nation and of our world. Unfortunately, the rest of the globe in particular Canada, Mexico, Ukraine, the European Union, Greenland, Taiwan and Panama will be feeling the consequences of our actions as Americans. We had an open book test and we failed overwhelmingly because of apathy. Maybe next time, if there is a next time — people will be a little less selfish.