Depends how you read it

Do we have to leave our own country to notice individuals who are labelled “down and out” or is it that we are so use to seeing people where we live and we become oblivious to the problem.  I must say that I have just started to notice a lot more people that are down and out.  They are down and out for whatever reason, substance abuse, poverty, ill health I don’t know.  What is the actual turning point that puts someone over the line and they move from what might be called normal society to “a nobody” when do we seem to not really care about them?  At what point do they become invisible, untouchable, that one crosses the street to avoid and ignored.  At what point do they lose their name, their identity their respect for themselves and from others?

Is substance abuse their only refuge in their world?  How do they get back into what one might call “normal society” or are they actually better off where they are?  What is the road back and how do they find it?  Do they even want to come back from where they are? How does one stop them falling over the line in the first place or who or what pushes them over this line? They have so many signs, Hungry & Homeless or who am I kidding in need a beer, or I need to get to Langley for work on Monday or wash up porn star – all ending with spare some change $

I read recently a sign at some road repair works “Please slow down my daddy works here” which certainly had a better impact then the normal signage I have seen “road works ahead slow down”.  What if we were to read with a different attitude the many signs the down and outs hold up each day and instead of what they have written – we read it as “This is someone’s Child can YOU please help them”

Would it make a difference – only you can answer that