Every year I write a column encouraging homeless folks to participate in a community of care. This community might be faith-based or a civic group like Sustainable Ballard or Real Change.
I encourage folks to participate in a community of care because such communities are the foundation for psychological and spiritual health. As individuals we need to be part of larger groups that know our name, appreciate our presence, want nothing from us other than friendship, and, most importantly of all, is a community that will receive our gifts, whatever they are, a community that will receive the assets of our life.
I'm a big affirmer of "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." This requires giving and receiving. Let's face it, no one likes a mooch because those who only take are always manipulating and therefore can't be trusted. Without trust, friendship and community is impossible. I encourage homeless folks to become involved in communities of care as participants, as people who have something to contribute towards the greater good and the larger commonwealth.
This year I want to encourage homeless folks to do this with an even greater urgency. The budget cuts are now in the bone and it looks as if the next round of cuts will lead to amputations. Folks are going to die. And it won't be the folks living in Medina or up at Yarrow Point. We're going to see the most vulnerable crumble. And we're going to see those who used to make it start to slip into the most vulnerable class. There's no political hope in sight, either from politicians or a citizenry that is willing to generate revenue that funds a commonwealth. This past year was a struggle, this coming year, and the years ahead are going to be brutal for poor folk.
So my urgency is to start today and begin to participate in communities of care. Think in terms of tribes. Who is your tribe? And is the tribe sustainable? If all you've got is a community of negatively addicted cripples then the future is already written. Like weakened caribou, one by one, you will be picked off by the wolves of capitalism. There's no room in the inn for you, and even the barn is full this time. What homeless folk need, more than ever, is to integrate into communities of diversity so that there are resources enough to share.
I also offer the same counsel for the struggling middle class. I think the next couple years will see a great crumbling within a once self-confident people. Marriages will strain until they burst. Males humiliated by the loss of status and income will become angry with rage. Children once overly-protected will be unprepared for the harsh hammer of austerity. The cold wind comes and with it the pouring rain. Only together can we build an ark.