It is a wise bum who knows his own kind.---Mudhead
by James Jarvis
from My Arcology (tales of working at a South Central Arco)
One of my fellow Arconians, Eddie, is homeless. He lives in his car. He admits to living in his car, but denies he's homeless.
Living in a car two months qualifies a person as homeless, I told him, but he still denies being homeless. He can't bring himself admit it. He has the same bigoted prejudice most people have about the homeless: homeless means you're bad or stupid or irresponsible. He's been raised to hate the homeless just like everyone else in America. He doesn't realize how many hundreds of thousands of working homeless there are in this country.
I gave him some tips on where to get free showers and free hot lunches in the neighborhood. Eddie works more hours than I do at the Arco, but he's about $3.50 an hour short of qualifying for an apartment. I was going to let him use my crack motel room shower, but my roommate Creepy doesn't want any homeless people in our room.
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