Listen here, you

Homeless people are not scary, damnit. They're not.

Probably you read that first line and laughed to yourself. Or, maybe, you didn't.
In any case, I'm typing this in total earnestness that someone will sympathize my point, and in total earnestness that I will not forget my own words (even though I will).

I'm so tired of homeless people being stigmatized like outcasts of society, like untouchables. Society has told us many a-time, "They're homeless because they messed up and lost everything" or "They'll only use your money to feed their addictions" or "They're always high on drugs or drunk off of booze-- probably both" or, my favorite, "They're dangerous." Dangerous, huh? So, if I stop to offer a homeless man something to eat, he's going to pull a knife on me? In front of all the people on the busy sidewalk where he stopped me? I find that highly unlikely. Yet society ducks its head and avoids eye contact anytime it passes one of "them."

Sometimes, homeless people don't even try to ask for spare change. Sometimes, they just want to talk. Sometimes they just want a cup of coffee to keep their hands warm. Sometimes they just want a soda to calm their acid-reflux.

They graciously accept five-dollar cheeseburgers that you grab for lunch when you're in a hurry.

But, most importantly, homeless people are people, damnit. Like people who have a permanent residence, sometimes they have drug and alcohol abuse issues. Like people struggling to pay for college or support their families or pay their bills, sometimes they go hungry for reasons we have no right to judge.

It's our privilege, our right, our responsibility, to, as we are able, provide for people when they are without, whether they are without food, shelter, or just someone to listen. Sometimes they only want to tell their story, to justify why they are where they are, to make it known to someone that they are trying to improve.

Sometimes we don't remember how alike we all are.