My speech thingy.

For my speech I stayed away from the podium and went closer to the audience. I was really nervous and I was shaking... I didn't feel to strong about it but I think I got my teachers to tear up and another student or two. The following indents and ->'s don't mean anything, I just had them in my speech so it was easier to spot out where I needed to continue talking and it would allow me to look up from my note cards and look back without getting lost.

What is your definition of a homeless person? An alcoholic man, a drug abuser, a person too lazy to support them self? For me a homeless person had a home, they were loved and they’re now abandoned, they include men, women and children, in fact 1 out of every 5 children in America lives in poverty.

 

At the age of 8 in the back of my mom's 1986 Toyota Treno; 10-15 feet away from me, I saw a family of three, a man, woman, and baby. He held a sign that said, "Laid off, homeless, please help." My mother gave them what she could and we moved on.

 

I come to you as a 21 year old student at De Anza College, I come healthy and proud, but I wasn't always this way. In my past I spent several days and nights on the streets, the stares were embarrassing and the memories of which still pains me.

I come to you full of hope, but I ask you to listen, and implore you to think and question.

 

You see them on the streets every day, yet they're hidden from view. They look and smell like dirt, yet they pick up the trash WE leave behind. We ridicule them and look down on them just because they don't have a home to return too. What if we could give them a home metaphorically?

If home is where the heart is, how are we to be so cold to the soldiers on the frontline in the war to protect the environment?

 

As stated by Nationalhomeless.org in 2003, 39% of homeless are under 18, 42% of which are under 5.

A survey in 2005 of 25 different cities in the U.S. revealed that 33% of the homeless population consists of a family with children.

5% of urban homelessness consists of children who are all alone.

 

In the end no matter the age, ethnicity, gender or religion, they all struggle in the cycle of poverty.

It is hard to break out of the cycle of poverty. You're living off of welfare, food stamps, Medicare, fear, embarrassment, and much more.

Without a home -> your health fluctuates -> which in turn interferes with your education -> without a solid education, finding a job that'll pay enough for rent and to take care of your family when you are homeless, is like finding god.

Without a job you don't have money to support your family much less yourself. Without steady income you can't rent a place, when most places require first and last month's rent up front as well as a security deposit.

            Having a home not only supports you and gives you protection from the weather, but it also protects you from the prosecution against those who wish to harm you. Some if not most of you have already heard of homeless violence, but According to Brian Levin, Director for the Center of Study on Hate and Extremism at CA State University, ->  "One homeless man was set ablaze on his wheelchair in Spokane Washington" -> A homeless woman was drowned in Tennessee's Cumberland river by two teenage boys.

 

Every day the homeless are beat and murdered for sport. They're chosen to be the sacrificial lamb because society views them as less than human.

If that isn't enough -> Ashley Fantz wrote an article for CNN telling of a homeless beating that made it to light. -> Three teens drunk and high beat and killed 49 year old Rex Baum at his camp site.

At first they taunted him, throwing sticks and leaves at him. It escalated, one of the boys landed a punch, and soon he was lost to the flurry of fists and stomping feet.

 

The beating did not stop there. The boys threw rocks, bricks and proceeded to pound him with a bat, a pipe and eventually a barbeque grill that Baum had at his site over the years. -> They left him with his head wedged in the grill -> feces smeared on his face, and cut open by a knife.

 

These actions are merely drops of blood compared -> to the ocean of crimson liquid AS each day passes.

A statement made by Laura Hansen, Executive director of the Broward Coalition for the homeless said, "I wish I could say that this was shocking and appalling, but it is not, we see it all the time."

I asked you earlier to question. Question yourself how many times you would have to see a homeless beat, and/or murdered to be numbed out to the pain.

 

"Scorned Trash Pickers Become Global Environmental Force" an article written by JACK CHANG from the McClatchy Newspaper, states that the homeless do affect the environment at a tremendous level. -> While it doesn't seem too important, I mean people picking up what we left around...

Consider this: On top of recycling, trash pickers actually lower methane emission, which is 20 times more potent and destructive to the Ozone layer then CO2 is.

Brazil boasts the highest recycling rate of almost 90%

They salvage 33,000 tons of recyclables a day.

Indonesia, the forth most populated country has 1/3 of its garbage recycled by trash pickers.

As for the U.S., we only recycle about half as much as we use, we waste so much and we take so much for granted.

 

The Economic Research Service or ERS “estimated that 96 billion pounds of food -> or 27% of the 356 billion pounds of edible food available for human consumption in the United States is wasted.”

 

The average person eats about 3 pounds of food each day; if 5% of the 96 billion pounds were recovered that amount would still feed 4 million people for the day.

Play my video - Homeless Remember, Will Always -

The homeless do make an impact and they need to be viewed in a different light, then the drug addicts and the alcoholics they are coincided with.

The homeless are a step to opening your eyes, like the environment both are abused and both are forgotten in our daily lives.

Most people automatically assume the homeless are going to ask for money. In my experience, people will strike a conversation with a random person next to them just to avoid you; they would ignore you even when all you did was say hello. Most homeless would like a home, but acknowledging their existence is enough.

With that being said, would you have listened to what I had to say if I was homeless? If you would I challenge you for 3 days to record what you eat and how much money you spent that day and total how much you wasted at the end.