Women on The Street Essay -- essays research papers

Women on the Street     Have you ever go down the street and felt that nagging feeling ofguilt, as you shot by any(prenominal)one lying in a doorway? Is she subsisting? Is she ill?Why do we all rush by without determination out is shes all right?     People sit in curb stations, bus stations, parks, doorways,unmistakably sick, with what, we dont know. All are seemingly alone. somewhat beg. close to dont. Some have open sores that ooze and bleed. Some are drunk. Sometalk to themselves or formless others. They have no homes.     Street the great unwashed make up a small percentage of the homeless population. approximately homeless people blend into the daily flow of urban livelihood. more families arehomeless. Many babies go from the hospital into the shelter system, never astute what it is like to go home. Women are a nonher subgroup of the homeless.     Solutions to homelessness are not slowly found. But before we can solveproblems, we must be spiritualist enough that we create the will to find thesolutions. Often if we do not feel the problem, if some emotional response isnot made, we are not moved to seek solutions. We are often unmoved to even accept the questions. We cannot afford to keep walking by.     "Work is a fundamental contain of human existence," said Karl Marx. Inpunch-the-clock and briefcase societies no less than in clownish or huntingand gathering societies, it is the organization of ladder that makes life incommunities possible. Individual life as well as social life is closely tied to overwork. In wage labored societies, and perhaps in every other as well, much of anindividuals identity is tied to their job. For near people jobs are aprincipal source of both independency and correctness to others. It should comeas no surprise that, in the work force or out, work and jobs are important inthe lives of homeless women.      There are women who want to work and do, and women who want to work anddo not. There are women who cannot work and others who should not work andstill others who do not want to work. Some work regularly, some intermittentlysome work part-time, some full-time and there are even those who work two jobs.At any given moment, there is a muddle of job-searching, job losing, job changing,and ... ...escould have contained the explosive forces of racial animosity, social shapedifferences, competition for resources, overcrowding, individuals who were notalways in control of their actions, and individuals who wanted to breakthemselves from the group. but came against these forces, and born mainly outof shared homelessness and common needs, was a powerful impulse to groupcohesion and solidarity. Most of the time, the impulse to solidarity was reinforcedenough to hold the negative forces in check, there by providing the lower limit ofpeace and reasoned order that made s ocial life possible. On many evenings, as thewomen came together in the shelter, there was sufficient good feeling and fellowfeelings, when coupled with their common needs and circumstances, to allow asense of community to sputter into life. For most women, the loneliness oftheir homeless present was a terrible burden to bear this fragile bit ofcommunity, and small, was precious indeed.     "Homelessness is the sum total of our dreams, policies, intentions,errors, omissions, cruelties, kindness, all of it recorded, in the flesh, in thelife of the streets." (Marin 41).