They have been called the invisible people of our cities, but that's not true. The homeless are always there, always visible. I suppose like most folks I have my opinions about the matter, but I'll set them aside for the time being. What I have noticed is how the homeless on the streets inspire either anger or this odd process of ignorance- creating the invisible myth.
The anger resides in the two extremes of the issue. Some folks are angry at the homeless, seeing character flaws or poor decisions as the reason for their wretched state. Often they may even come to believe that many of the homeless they encounter are "faking it", begging for handouts by day, driving back to the suburbs at night, essentially actors performing street theater for tips. Others are angry at a system that they say callously dump these poor souls on the street. Our culture, our society is simply too harsh to take care of people who clearly can't take care of themselves.
Most people, it seems to me, have developed the ability to walk past them, ignoring their existence. It is like when you click on a Flickr site that is outside your filter, you can hit the little button that says "take me to kittens". So off we go to our offices or shops. We see the homeless man sitting on the sidewalk with a cup, or the old homeless woman pushing a grocery cart, and we hit the button. Ah, kittens. What a relief.
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