Lost Causes

In prepping for the day ahead I was watching a clip from my favorite film of all time Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In the final scene, an exhausted Senator Smith uses the last of his strength to remind one of his colleagues that "Lost causes are sometimes the only ones worth fighting for."

Earlier this morning I encountered a woman who was homeless who had split her head open on a tree stump in one of our parks. Bleeding, she came to the closest open restaurant and begged them to call the paramedics. The workers, who spoke broken English, came and asked my friend if he could speak to the 911 operator. As we went to see the woman, who was at the drive through window, I realized that she was one of the speakers at last night's council meeting.

The woman at the meeting was quite distraught about the level of harassment she felt she was getting from local police and the lack of help she was getting from the community. According to her she had reached out for help and no one cared to even try. Seeing her speak and later her daughter, broke my heart. Her story was all over the place, but I could hear in her very emotionally-charged address some things that very well could have happened including things like police harassment.

So there she was crying, with blood dripping down the right side of her face and onto her shirt and next to her was her son, who looked about 15 and was extremely pale. With paramedics on the way she asked if one of us could buy her son something to eat as he had, according to her, not eaten in two days. So my friend did, and purchased him a hamburger. The paramedics arrived, cleaned the wound and took her and her son to the hospital for what I assume would be a few stitches.

Remembering the council meeting I had remembered that the woman came with her daughter, who was about my age, to address the council. So I spoke to my friend and we set out to find where the daughter was to attempt to give her the number of a community resource she could take advantage of. We found her wrapped in a blanket at the edge of the park with a shopping cart filled with, what I assume to be the family's last few items that they owned and I gave her the number. She initially wouldn't even respond to me. I told her where I had recognized her from and explained that there are a lot of people who do care and told her to call the number for some help. She reluctantly took the number and we left.

I can't tell you how much the entire situation pulled on my heart. I do not know the background of this woman and her family but what I do know is that the daughter, who was left alone, had a look on her face that I will never forget. She didn't have much but most of what she did have left was taken away in an ambulance minutes earlier. She was left there with a shopping cart filled with a few personal effects of the family and no direction for the day ahead. It was horrifying and with a sense of helplessness I got in my car and went home.

 As an individual who is involved in this community, it is all too often easy to sing the praises of all the programs we have for people who are in need. We, in this community, tend to be satisfied with the safety net we have created and tend to be dismissive of those who have fallen through it. The Mayberry mentality we all enjoy allows us to rationalize away the down-right horrifying reality of the volume of people who are and who will continue to fall through our safety nets. We should not and cannot be satisfied.

While I acknowledge that we will never be able to help every homeless family or feed every starving individual in our community, I do believe that we need to evaluate our safety net when it so clearly failed. At the council meeting the woman stated that she asked for help, she stated that she reached out to BTAC and that nothing could be done to help her. Sad part is, I believe her. I don't know why BTAC would have turned her away but I hear from more and more people who have requested aid with there water and power bill (which is a program run through BTAC) that they have been turned away. Maybe demand is high? I don't know.

These are obviously tough times but we who are blessed to be in leadership positions cannot afford to be dismissive of everyday residents who are now struggling to survive. In a matter of a few hours this woman's situation went from bad to worse. No one on the council or on staff cared enough to pick up a phone and give anyone of our local hotels a call. The nightmare of what happened and what will happen when child protective services gets involved, as a result of last night, was easily preventable.

In the end I just want to say this. We as leaders in this community and as good human beings have a responsibility to look out for members of our community. Let us not forget that we are empowered to listen and then act rather than act and then listen. And lastly, let us also not forget that every human being has an inherent value and so does their opinion. We have lost this in Burbank and while I may be an idealist I hope this is not a lost cause. But hey, as Mr. Smith said, "Lost causes are sometimes the only ones worth fighting for."