Our first Food Not Bombs adventure of the semester. I was able to talk with two veterans, both homeless. One fought in the Vietnam War. I heard fragmented pieces of what he experienced: Holding together the torn arm of one of his dyeing friends. Warning another soldier not to pick a child up, because once the kid’s feet were off the ground, a bomb would be triggered. “I just knew how to blow stuff up,” he declared. He showed me his faded military picture he kept safe in his brown leather wallet. He was seated in uniform, with an American flag behind him. Land of the free? “So I guess it’s really me that should be thanking you guys,” I told him.
It is easy to ignore the homeless. To draw a line that separates you from them…the poor…the other. But in reality, we are all on the same side. I told one of the men that I am doing a project about homelessness in my social work class. “What would you like me to tell them about the homeless population?” I asked. “Just that they know that we are the same as them. We are smart people,” he replied.
-Sam
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