by Marjorie A. Gordon-DeLee, MA (January 19, 2019)
I arrived at the Union Station in Washington, DC at 3:39 am on January 17, 2019 to wait for my daughter come pick me up but she never did. I remained a homeless person as I was in Columbia, SC since December 26, 2018 living as a homeless person. As a result of my stay at the Union Station in Washington, DC, the Nation’s Capital, I could not believe that there was no system in place there to help the homeless people who had nowhere to go in the evenings close to the Union Station when the temperature was low outside. When it was snowing outside or raining outside. The Security Guards would simply come around and ask everyone there who had a ticket to present it to them at that time, if an individual did not have a ticket, such as myself who was homeless and other homeless people, we were all asked to leave the premises
There are very few outlets for the people to charge their cell phones or to use their laptops or tablets if they have a long layover at the Union Station. It is apparent that there were a few in McDonalds, however, silver plates have been used to cover them up. Why would the administration do that? That is not being customer friendly to the large amount of people who give their money to purchase food and sit down in the McDonalds establishment and eat.
Also, after the McDonald closes, why can’t the lobby be use by the homeless for a place of shelter to stay inside out of the inclement weather when it is freezing cold or raining outside?
In addition to the lobby of McDonalds being used, then allow the homeless to remain in the building as a place of shelter and a place to sleep instead of kicking them out and telling them that the establishment could care less where they go. Very cruel words to another human being who is down on their luck by an employee of the Union Station. The Union Station has all of these businesses, making money off of the vast number of people using the establishment for the Amtrak, Greyhound, and the City Transit. People coming from all cities of the United States, utilizing this facility and spending lots of money.
Why not have an area that feed the homeless people at least one meal during the day while they are at the Union Station. If Washington, DC do not want the homeless there at the Union Station, then help get them back on their feet by providing treatment to them. They need help for alcoholism, drug addition, mental Illness, and/or counseling for whatever reason.
The homeless are constantly asking the people coming through, those who sit in the restaurants eating their food, those standing in line to purchase their food, those who are just walking through for change, a dollar or just to buy them some food to eat because they are hungry. Smelling the food and watching other people eat when you do not have a dime in your pocket to buy anything is pure torture for another human being or even an animal who receives better treatment.
Just today I had approximately 20 or 30 of the homeless people to ask me for money as I sat eating or stood in line or walked through the Union Station. Do you know how demeaning and humiliating that must be for them as a human being and an adult to have to beg for food to eat when the smell of food is all around them and they cannot get any food to eat?
People, wake up! This is cruel and inhumane treatment to another adult (human being). Why have no one not seen this huge problem brewing all of these years and took a stance and solved this problem before now. That is why the White House, Congress, sits on Capitol Hill, just a few miles away, to help the needed and poor; those individuals in poverty, the homeless and the sick. This democracy has totally forgotten about its’ civic duties to mankind.
The police officers and other people walked through with their dogs, petting them the entire time and did not have the heart and compassion to give a homeless person a meal? Not everyone can give all the time in these instances, however, since there is an abundance of homeless at the Union Station, that is a clear indication there is a problem that need to be addressed and solved in some form or fashion. One thing that can be done is that the homeless can be provided with at least one mean during their day at the Union Center. Have some compassion for a woman or a man who is down on their luck whether they contributed to their downfall or not, they are human beings and deserve to eat just as any other human being.
I did provide some change and a meal on separate instances to another homeless as myself. I certainly wished that I could have done more. I had to make my dollar stretch as much as possible. But this morning when trying to purchase a breakfast biscuit from McDonalds, my debit card was declined. I did it again because I was sure that something was wrong with the card or their system. But no, it was me. All of my money, as little as it was, was gone from my checking account. I hope that no one accessed my account through the internet service here and took my information.
There was a woman sitting on the floor next to the entrance of the women’s bathroom and I listened to that poor homeless woman say “F” You over and over and over again; 30 to 40 times in 15 minutes. There was definitely something wrong with that woman’s mind. Those were the only words that she would use. Later on, that evening, right before 11:00 pm, I saw her back in that same spot on the floor of the bathroom entrance. The Security Guard stood there looking on at her, asked her if she was doing good and continued to watch her. I stood by and watched the both of them to see what would happen next. But the woman just stood up and continued repeating the same words and the Guard walked behind her until she was on the outside. A few minutes later I saw that the Guard was standing back at his post and I asked him if there was ever a report or anything written up when they saw people act in that fashion and he said no. Unless they were violent or contemplating harm to themselves, I suppose they just allowed the homeless person to just move one.
Maybe a good idea would be to get that person’s name and give it to a mental health counselor so that this person could be followed up on the next day, because she would come back. I saw her the day before but she was not repeating the same words over and over again.
These people need help because they are not living life at all. Help these people. All of these elected officials. I know at some point; an elected official has walked through the Union Station. If they have not, they most definitely should. These are the people that they are representing. How can you continue to turn a blind eye to the people you have been elected to serve as a citizen of this United States of America?
There was a black man who sat at the table next to me at McDonalds who talked to himself the entire time as he jerked his arms in and out and kicked up his legs and feet as he sat. An older White man traveling through sat at another table next to where this man sat and watched him as I also did. It was horrible to see this man out of his mind, experience so much misery in his brain.
As I write this paper, there is a woman sitting across from me at McDonalds talking out loud to herself and did so the entire time as I was sitting there typing. It is heart wrenching people. We have got to do something now, not wait and decide if this is something that need to be considered in 2019, and argue over a few dollar figures. We are talking about human beings just as ourselves.
Further, there was a massive amount of people in the Union Station on today and one homeless lady whom I talked to all throughout the day during my period at the Union Station in DC said that was abnormal for that amount of people to be in the Station traveling through at one time. The point that I am attempting to make here is the fact that there was only one women’s bathroom on the Amtrak floor for use as I saw. The line lingered for a few hours, moving slowly. That should not be.
This Union Station need to provide food for the homeless during the day, work on providing them assistance with Social Workers visiting there periodically during assigned days of the week and not look over them as if they are invisible or a nuisance and treat them as less than a human being just as they and I are.
I went into the store with my luggage and for the first time in a long time I could feel the eyes of the store owner and the police officer who was in the store at the time, on me, following me as if I was going to take something out of the store.
On last night an elderly, homeless White woman really became angry with the Security Guard because they moved her, as well as the other homeless people from secure, warm locations and pushing people to the outside in the freezing cold weather. I briefly heard just a little of what she was saying, but her rage was directed at the government and what they were not doing for the citizens of this Nation which include the homeless. She was a very well-educated woman as I have also seen in many other homeless. People just need financial assistance because the current wages are too low, the rent and cost of houses are over the roof and the cost of living is outrageous with the low or no wages.
Congress need to stop destroying people lives and start to helping and building up people, treating everyone equally and fairly. How can they do that? Put people in the office who can identify with suffering people. Someone whose lived their life as a poor person, that can bring about the best of changes because they have been there, done that. No one should be on the streets sleeping in the United States of America, nor any other place in this world. No one should be without healthcare, no one should go hungry during the day when there can be money allotted for a lunch feeding program for places like the Union Station and every church in the United States of America.
Of course, as all things, these places will need to be monitored constantly so that unethical people will not take advantage of the poor and suffering. This year, 2019, let us make human being lives better and not incorporate America richer. Start taking corporate America money away and give to the poor who need it more. Stop building prisons and start training and counseling the ex-offenders so that they can correct their bad behaviors.
I have not had a full night sleep in three nights and can barely keep my eyes opened. I suppose it is time to stop with this paper.
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