Just like us

By Jeremy Lillig, CSJA, Managing Director, Bright Futures Fund

 

Despite working in a non-profit setting in which we too serve the poor, I oftentimes am reminded of the magnitude of suffering and despair that those who are homeless or who live in poverty must endure.

 

This week I learned of the untimely death of, Seth, a fellow college alum who is my contemporary.  Only the news of his death would be tragic in any sense, this news was especially troubling.

 

Right before Christmas while volunteering at Morning Glory Café, a former professor and I served Seth a meal -much to our surprise given the fact that he was highly intelligent, very talented, able bodied and had a master’s degree.  This event, though laced with ignorance on my part was an important reminder that the homeless are not some isolated group but rather just like us.  They are just fellow human beings trying to survive.

 

So this week when I learned that Seth had been found dead in a pile of trash I was filled with sadness.  He had taken shelter in a dumpster to try and keep warm.  As awful as this act seems it is oftentimes a necessary step in survival to someone who is homeless.  When the trash truck was picking up its rounds, Seth was killed in the process.  The workers (who also endured a tragedy while simply doing their jobs) discovered Seth when they got to the plant.  Seth’s lifeless body lay amongst the refuse of a busy city, a city that unintentionally had let one of its fellow citizens die without dignity in a pile of trash while trying to stay warm.

   

Seth, a capable person who had long suffered a lack of resolve in our mental health system had become another statistic of our “throw away culture’ in which the value of human life is low, and material wealth determines drive, and destiny.  My effort in telling this story is not to politicize nor manipulate a tragedy for a social agenda but rather to reflect upon my reminder that I must do more to help address those discarded by our society.

 

Every person deserves dignity without distinction.  It is within our means to ensure that it is given.

 

This exemplifies the importance of Community LINC.  If we can help just one person so they don’t have to endure the undignified fate that Seth did, we will have made an impact far more valuable than any wealth we could ever possess.