A homeless man has been sleeping on a low flagstone wall at the corner of Shermer and Walters in Northbrook for the past few nights. A block from my house.
The first time I saw him, while walking our dog with my wife about 9 p.m., I steered us in a different direction, worried he would, I don't know, leap up and stab us. It happens.
The second time I saw him, I had a very different thought: "You know, we have those extra bedrooms. Maybe we should put him up for a few nights ..."
Two very different reactions — fear and kindness — that neatly bookend the general reaction to pervasive homelessness in American society.
On the one hand, we're afraid. Even though the unhoused are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than the cause of it. Not just for our own safety, but for the health of our communities as a whole.
Few motorists driving along Lake Shore Drive, I imagine, see the tents sprouting in Lincoln Park and think: "Cool. A welcoming city provides safe space for its most humble citizens." Not the city beautiful Daniel Burnham had in mind.
On the other hand, we recognize life is hard. There are many ways to fall through the cracks: addiction, mental illness, divorce, unemployment, poverty. Some unfortunates struggle to maintain the barest fingerhold on society.
Who among us wants to tread on their fingers? I doubt many Americans wake up and wonder, "How can I make life more difficult for homeless people today?"
Such people exist and now have a strong ally in Washington. America is in the midst of her Golden Age of Fear. It's like we're cycling through vulnerable communities, one by one, to see who can be demonized and oppressed next.
Trump 2.0 came out of the blocks swinging at immigrants — who now can be arrested on sight by masked police, without due process, and shipped to foreign countries while we race to build our own domestic gulags.
Then trans people, who now can be cashiered from the military for reasons that had nothing to do with their ability to serve.
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