The "have" and the "have not"

Recently, some of us may have noticed about the increasing rate of violent and brazen crimes in our neighborhood. I live in Greater LA area, and Yes, I knew that violent crime is nothing new to LA, but the degree and frequency of such crimes in the last few months or so had been a lot higher than ever. Last Christmas, I saw news about party shootings done by a man wearing Santa's outfit. And yes, almost every week we heard news about robberies or grand thefts, affecting common people, banks, and yes, even the rich people and celebrities who lived in Pacific Palisades, Bel Air and many other affluent places.

In many instances, both the law enforcement authorities and victims seemed to agree that the increasing rate of crime they were facing had a lot to do with the economic hardships faced by most people, especially those who can be categorized as the lowest rank in the financial pyramid. Yet, many of the rich people seemed to be unfazed by this compelling arguments and kept on showing off their wealth by wearing expensive clothes, bags, or jewelries, as if they did not realize that the not-so- lucky people around them are silently watching their actions with envy, some even held grudge against them.

The overwhelming facts of the gap between the rich and the poor in America nowadays is a big concern for me, since such issue had been the driving force behind many riots, revolutions and even civil wars all across the globe. Riots, revolutions and wars are sad realities which should not have happened if we all have truly live our lives as brothers and sisters. Yet, all those bad things happened over and over again because of our insensitivity toward one another, or our callous heart which prevent us from being able to sympathize about the needs of others. Some of us may be unable to do much for others because of the personal circumstances in our lives, but some others may have been blessed enough to be a blessing toward other people.

For me, it's sad to see rich people who would rather spend their hundreds of dollar by eating at a fancy restaurant or shopping for unnecessary items at fancy boutiques or specialty shops when they know that they could have used those money to help the local relief groups or homeless shelters around them which may be able to use the money to feed many people who are needy and hungry. Don't get me wrong, I do not see those actions as despicable or sinful, but I see them more as proof of negligence or insensitivity.

I know many of us did not really enjoy to be around homeless people or poor people because of many reasons. Some of us may have had bad experience dealing with poor or homeless people, while some others may simply dislike the poor because of the common stereotypes we heard about them.

Here are some of the most common stereotypes:
1. Poor people smells bad
Yes, many poor people smells bad or stinks (literally), especially those who lived on the street. Many of us who had been raised in proper homes probably do not want to even get near such people. Yet I do not believe we should judge them by the cover. (Let alone those people who had never been taught about propriety, even some of us who are raised properly may still have few bad habits that we still do every now and then)
I believe some of them probably did not really care of hygiene because of the bad influence of those around them, maybe because they never have a family or maybe they came from a dysfunctional family. On the other hand, some poor people probably just did not have money to buy soaps or take a bath at a paid shower room. Yes, some of us may argue that these people seem to have money to buy beers, how could they claim that they have no money to take a shower. Well, I believe the main reason behind that is priority and accessibility. What I mean by priority is the fact that many poor people, especially homeless people who lived on the street for most of their lives simply did not have a good grasp about life's priority. They simply consider beers to be more important for them than shower, maybe because they think beers are necessary to warm their bodies or perhaps just to satisfy their addiction to beer. Availability here means the lack of public showers or restrooms in the neighborhoods where these people live. What makes it worse is the abundance of beer-selling venues on the street where they live. The beer-vendors seem to have either targeted these poor people or their neighborhoods.

2. Poor people are irresponsible people
The other reason for our reluctance to be near the poor is our perception that poor people as those who are simply irresponsible with their lives. Yes, some poor people are indeed irresponsible, they used the money they received from others to buy beers or drugs on the street or other similarly stupid things, but that does not mean that all of them are like that. Many of the poor people are not very well educated, some of them did not even finish their grade school, therefore many of them do not have a very good understanding about their responsibility as part of a society. I believe it's our duty, as people who have better understanding in this matter, to teach them to become more responsible in action, with love and grace. I know that it will take time, I also realize that such actions may not even have a lasting impact in their lives because they may be too old to be able to change from their old bad habits but I still believe it's worth trying.

3. Poor people did not have willingness to leave their lifestyles.
Some of us view the poor as those who do not have willingness to get better. Yes, some poor people may have such inclination, especially those who had been homeless for a long time or those who had completely lost their hopes. To give us a better understanding on this matter, let's take a look at an ancient story from the Orient. Some of us may be familiar with the ancient Chinese story of a frog in the well who have a very small and narrow perspective, yet this frog even dare to brag over another frog who live in a big ocean. Indeed, the main reason for his foolish action was because the well is the only place the frog ever knows of. The same thing applies to the poor people. Those poor people may never have the slightest imagination of leaving their "lifestyles" because they may have never known of another world better than the world they currently live in.

Now, hopefully most of us can agree on the fact that we may have judged the poor people so much, then what should we do after knowing that we may be able to do something for them. It does not have to be something grand or extravagant by any means, even simple gestures may help bridge our worlds with theirs.

Few suggestions:
1. If you have extra money, you could donate small amount of money to your local relief organizations, such as LA Mission, Food Bank etc.
2. If you have items that you do not need, you could donate them to local organizations such as Goodwill, Salvation Army etc.
3. If you do not have extra money or items to give, don't worry, you can still help your local relief organizations by volunteering at local homeless shelters. In greater LA area, you may find LA's Union Rescue Mission in downtown LA, First Day in Whittier, Long Beach Rescue Mission in Long Beach, Orange County Rescue Mission in Tustin and many more.

Wait, even if you have nothing to donate... you may be broke and have no time to go to visit your local social services organizations, you can still at least do one of the following suggestions:
1. Pray
Yes, you could do this in your own bedroom or wherever you are.
Pray that the Lord will raise up more and more people who are willing and able to move forward for His sake. Pray that the Lord will once again relief the poor from injustices around them.
2. Act
You could also kindly show your love and mercy toward others in your daily life. Yes, you may be tied up because you spend your whole day at your workplace, but you can still do your part there. If you have exposure or contact with people (maybe you work in department store, grocery store or restaurant), show mercy and kindness to those who are less fortunate than you.
3. Raise Awareness
True, some of us may be stuck in cubicles or work in front of our computers everyday without much chance to interact with other people, you can still do your part by raising awareness about this issue, either via your own website, or your profile in MySpace or Facebook.

God bless y'all