sweeping up the homeless

I just saw a headline on Yahoo! news about Denver trying to entice the homeless to sleep elsewhere during the Democratic Convention. Sleep elsewhere?!!

It frustrates me that a convention that is supposed to be based on the PEOPLE, all people, would try to sweep away the homeless for the week -- as if they could pretend these people do not exist -- and at the same time pontificate how much the Democratic party is for the poor.

You can't help people that you refuse to see.

Volunteering for The Gathering Place helped me to learn that. Once a week I worked at the computer lab helping women navigate the internet, look for jobs, and learn how to type. I was nervous at the beginning because I didn't know what these women would be like or how they would react to me. But my connection with these women was tremendous. I will never look at a woman on the streets the same again.

My compassion for women and the poor is much more real now. If the democrats continue to talk about helping the poor while at the same time refuse to meet them eye to eye -- how much can really change?