September, Friday the 13th saw masses of bedraggled people heading toward the meeting place. Sue had taken off from work to attend the meeting. She needed to hear and see for herself if this was indeed the answer to her problems. She walked, since the meeting place was not far from where her motorhome was parked. She hadn’t gone a block when she saw an old man struggling to pull his wheelchair with one foot. She suspected he had diabetes since one leg was obviously amputated. She walked up to him and introduced herself and asked if he was headed to the meeting and if she could push his wheelchair. He looked up at her gratefully with bloodshot eyes and said, “Yes ma’am, I’d be awfully grateful if you would! My name is Johnny and I am not making much progress this way!”
Sue smiled and couldn’t help but compare this migration to the scene in the movie ‘The Ten Commandments’ where the people were leaving Egypt. There was an excitement in the air as if the people were being infused with hope. A couple who had their motorhome parked next to Sue were walking alongside her and Johnny. Gloria and Ted were their names and they had come from Detroit, looking to get out of the cold two years before. They had been unable to find work and were living off of the food they got from food pantries and hand outs from a local church. Gloria was 45 and Ted was 50 and they had been together since high school. Gloria was an elementary school teacher by profession and Ted was an auto mechanic.
A couple of blocks further up, Sue and Johnny saw three men bobbing and weaving up the street, trying not to fall down. Ted said, “They must have had their fix for the day. I hope they can make it to the meeting. They are all three nice guys but they use too many drugs to help them to forget. Jim, the tall one, used to be a bigwig on Wall Street. His partner screwed him over and now he has pretty much blown his mind and can’t think straight. The other two have been out on the streets since the hippie days. They are a lazy sort but they have made it their business to take care of Jim. You have to admit that there is a kind of awkward camaraderie among some of us who are homeless.”
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When they got to the meeting place, setting up was still going on so Ted went to help set up folding chairs. Sue went into the tent where coffee and breakfast sandwiches were being given out and asked if they could use her help. An older woman, named Marjorie smiled at her and asked her to pass out the coffee. The food was being taken row by row to the people already sitting in the chairs to help keep down the confusion of lines.
Right at ten o’clock, the meeting began with loud static from the microphone. The speaker said, “I am so sorry for the noise. Welcome everyone! I’m sure you all have many questions. We will welcome questions after our introduction to the homeless solution!” There was a loud roar of approval. When the noise died down, she continued, “I am sure you are here because you saw or heard about the flyers we posted. With a grant from the federal government, we have purchased three decommissioned cruise ships and moved them into the harbor just 80 miles from here. These cruise ships have been set up for you to live on. You will have a cabin and dining will be in a common area. There will be a school set up for school age children on one of the ships. We will have a chef on each ship, as well as three assistants and will be looking for some of you who have had prior cooking and serving experience to help them. We will also have several other places on the ship where we will need assistance like the clothing shop, laundry, the library, the school and so on.
Day after tomorrow, there will be three vans here at ten o’clock in the morning to take the first of you down to the docks. Once there, you will go through a similar inspection as at the airport and then have a shower and be given new clothes. You will be getting a fresh start! We will have zero tolerance for any kind of drugs.” With that statement, it took a full five minutes to quiet everyone down. Several people got up and left at that news.
An old man with a long beard stood up and asked, “What do you expect us to do if we can’t kick the habit cold turkey? These drugs have been our friends and helped us deal with living in intolerable situations and some of them can’t be kicked instantly.”