A tragedy is unfolding in Santa Barbara. Flames are scorching the earth, laying waste to the mansions in the hills above the city. People are now homeless who may never have thought about being homeless. Although most have resources, family and friends to help, they are tasting what it feels like to be without a home.
On the streets below the burning hills there are hundreds of people who were homeless before the fire even started. They didn’t have a house to burn, a wardrobe to wear or a car to escape in. These people have a lot of experience with homelessness. They might be the best people to help the newly homeless because they know what it is like and they know how to live without a roof over your head.
The media is perpetually preoccupied with the trappings of success and the inevitable fall from grace. I guess we identify with those who have a lot of stuff and then loose it. We don’t relate so well to people who have nothing because they lost it outside the pages of a newspaper or the glare of a TV camera. It is interesting to note that we seem to have a lot of sympathy for people who loose their possessions from a natural disaster, an event beyond their control. They can’t be blamed, so they are above reproach.
Santa Barbara hills in flames
We don’t seem to have the same sympathy for homeless people or poor people. Why is that? Because they are at fault? Because they are to blame for loosing their possessions, or for not having anything in the first place? I don’t know why. I don’t have an answer.
Hi Bob & All,
My mom and I had to evacuate last Friday night as we could see flames coming down the mountain just the end of our street (about 8-10 blocks away) on the other side of Foothill Road –police came through our neighborhood warning people to leave. Our neigbors lent us their son’s truck so we were able to leave with our valuables and favorite things…others were not so fortunate…I saw some people filling up shopping carts and pushing them away from the apartment complex. Others had just small cars in which to load their possessions…many left with only the clothes on their backs…the San Marcos High school shelter quickly overflowed –then the University offered shelter for the many of the 15,000 that were evacuated! Imagine, that many people having to flee the fire! We were lucky to be able to say in the condo my daughter manages located in the heart of Santa Barbara…from their we could see hundred foot flames leap up from the canyons behind us. We were able to go home on Saturday afternoon–we move our things back on Sunday…but, it makes you appreciate having a home, no matter how small (I share a one bedroom apartment with my mother)–a place to rest your head, a place to put your stuff, a place where you can feel safe, and be sheltered against the elements–in other words–a place you can call your own. It seems that it sometimes takes a disaster to realize there is nothing worse than having no place to call home-if even for a short while–I can just imagine the the hurt and hardship of never having a place to call home!
If you have a place that is too large for you–please try to think of homeless people the same way as those whose homes have burned down…they need shelter too!