Give me your tired,your poor and huddled masses. These are the words inscribed at the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island that greeted thousands of immigrants and refugees.
This past week I sat and watched the Lowell city council pass an ordnance to eliminate panhandling in the Historic section of Lowell. Not to long ago this same council voted to eliminate homeless camps in Lowell.
Let me address the homeless issue first. We knew where the camps were and agency's ,churches and activist's would do outreach and check on them and helped to house some of them. The city gave them a weeks notice to clear out and then the city removed there homes......AHHHH that looks better.
What happened is those fragile human beings went deeper into the woods and those who cared for them can't get to them .
Some of those same people are panhandling in our city because they are on there own now.
Yes some of them have substance abuse problems and mental illness but what we did was push them out of the way because it made us feel uncomfortable and it was an eyesore. Let me tell you there are plenty of eyesores in this city,just drive around.
We need to have some compassion for the less fortunate .We will never eliminate it totally because life sometimes throws us a right hook and anyone of us can end up like them in a blink of an eye.
Pray for them and help them if you can.
Sea Ya
The Capt.
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Well said captain
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