This is Billy Bob and the Consortium
Let’s Have a Conversation Today
We are Triggers of Guilt and Shame
“Would Have,” “Should Have,” Rest on Us
You know that this is one that we struggle with constantly even though 90% of the time homelessness is not a self-induced problem. The world is conditioned to see it that way, but we remain triggers and the easier ones to blame. Nothing changes if we are triggers, nothing, but let’s see what today’s coffee question is:
I hear what you’re describing—and I want to be careful and honest with you here.
What you’re really talking about isn’t policy, economics, or even homelessness at its core. You’re talking about conflict—the tug-of-war between self-protection and conscience.
Those “small pangs of guilt” you mention aren’t stupid, weak, or sentimental. They’re signals. Not commands. Signals.
And here’s an important distinction that often gets lost:
• Feeling something does not obligate you to fix everything.
• Acknowledging humanity does not require self-sacrifice, chaos, or naïveté.
You’re right about one thing: you cannot personally undo addiction, mental illness, trauma, bad choices, broken systems, or decades of neglect. No individual can. Trying to carry that weight will crush anyone. So your instinct to compartmentalize—to keep walking, to return to your world—is understandable.
But here’s where the tension comes from, and why it won’t fully go away no matter how tight the bottle cap is screwed on:
You’re not actually disturbed by them.
You’re disturbed by what their existence forces you to see.
• Fragility.
• The thin line between stability and collapse.
• The uncomfortable truth that effort, discipline, and morality do not always insulate people from ruin.
• And yes—sometimes the reminder that circumstances could have gone differently for you or someone you love.
That’s why the guilt flashes and then fades. It’s not about responsibility; it’s about recognition.
Here’s the hard but grounding truth:
You do not need to hate them to protect your peace.
You do not need to dehumanize them to refuse chaos.
And you do not need to romanticize suffering to remain human.
Containment, structure, boundaries, order—those are not evil concepts. Cities require them. Societies collapse without them. Wanting clean streets, safety, and predictability does not make you cruel.
But when we strip people entirely of humanity—even in our private language—it doesn’t just numb guilt. It slowly hardens everything. Empathy doesn’t stay neatly bottled; it leaks out of other areas too.
Initial Reaction from the Consortium
Man, all this mumbo jumbo junk of words, it means nothing, they still hate and fear us. They don’t want change; they want us to stop triggering their emotions so that they are not discomforted by any level of reality.
Humans are weird and sometimes unkind creatures, forgetting that one or two incidents in their lives, and they might be living with us.
Empathy, emotions, hard truth, conflict, signals, hard choices, those all belong in the psych doctors, not out here. Out here is simply survival and kindness to your tight circle of buddies.
Stop everybody, we agreed to do this, remember, drink coffee, eat treats, and breathe, it is just a question, guys.
Round Table Discussion/Frustration
I am starting this one off, no matter what, I own this one! Okay, Bill, go ahead, own it and start us off with our conversation today. This is the very reason my sister and I split this mess of emotions and the should have and could have mess. Those who are blessed with a life free of incidents and stuff and do not flirt with homelessness just cannot conceive of what we go through out here. She said ahs had enough signals to help me when I had not gotten it together after the second or third go around, and her signal system was turned off, no more earning empathy.
Should Have and Could Have are unique; why they ain’t spoken out loud, they are messages sent through us to our feet. In the inaction or action taken to make sure we are avoided at all costs. It is that private language that police, social workers and others use that we are not included in that makes us feel less than. It is that constant loss of humanity that makes us feel not worthy of being saved, helped, fed, clothed, or given shelter, and that is their overarching goal.
Hey, it’s me, Frankie, this here question is why I hide and rarely stick my head out of the bushes, except for these here coffee mornings. Humans they can get great ideas, but man, they can be totally mean. Y’all have heard of that deceptive game, look here, no it is over there, no, it is here, and then you realize there is actually nothing to look at? That is how I feel about humans they moral compass gets loud, and they should have, could have meter goes off, but no follow through.
Sally, you look like you want to say something, if you do, go ahead; it is safe to talk here. What is strange is this, I never expected or thought I would be out here, i had a great job and a good home, a little of savings, and then suddenly, Pandemic hits and it is all gone to pot. I am out here because decisions were made on would have, should have, and could have without any reality being incorporated and the result is this here mess with thousands suffering on the streets. The people care, but they have been trained to not care, the ‘would have’ and ‘should have’ drilled out of them.
Riposte
You say you’re triggered by guilt,
by the should-haves and could-haves,
by the sight of us standing at your lights,
sitting on your sidewalks,
breathing too close to your comfort.
We say live with it.
Because this didn’t fall from the sky.
It was zoned, signed, passed, postponed,
debated, delayed, and ignored.
It was built brick by brick
with indifference, silence, and distance.
You looked away long enough
for tents to become neighborhoods,
hunger to become routine,
and human beings to become “triggers.”
So don’t ask us to disappear
to make you feel better.
Sit with it.
You helped create it.
Guilt.
Shame.
Should’ve. Could’ve. Would’ve.
We stack those words like offerings,
hoping something holy happens—
but nothing changes.
Meetings are held. Statements released.
Prayers whispered behind locked doors.
Policies rewritten in cleaner fonts.
And still—
bodies fold into sidewalks,
breath runs out before patience does.
They tell us feel bad,
not do better.
Carry remorse,
not responsibility.
So we drown in guilt,
choke on shame,
rehearse the could-haves—
while time keeps doing what it does best:
moving on without us.
And in the end,
all that feeling meant nothing,
because nothing changed,
and we still die like trash—
discarded, unnamed,
swept away before anyone has to look too long.
Okay, Our Turn, We Ask You Some Questions:
Our Hope that you will see through the superficial topic of discussion that trap us to the streets and to the graves
That you begin to understand the danger of: Not thinking for your own self, but where you can challenge groupthink
See the great divide presented today in this discussion, where we are reduced to a pointless collection of ‘would have’ and ‘should have,’ life value is gone
Finally, assess for yourself, is this a true, true mindset that I have allowed or is it something that I have been fed, and it is false, critically important
Conclusion
The bible tells us a story in Luke 10 about a man who was robbed on his journey and how the first three men who passed by ignored him. Why was he ignored? Was it his fault? Did he do something wrong? Had he caused it, why was he ignored, left to suffer, left to possibly die, why? But then a stranger came by and picked him up and cared for him, until he was fully healed, at his own expense. Which group do you want to be housed folks?
The ‘should have,’ ‘Could have’ meter is within us all, but some have learned to quiet it, ignore it, or dumb it down with broken and useless mindsets. You housed folks have a powerful knee-jerk reaction when your moral compass gets triggered, but there ain’t no follow through that produces results for us.
You remain in fear, convinced this is punishment and justice for some unknown crime or failing, so why should have and could have be brought to bear on or for us? Anyway, enough for both sides to stew until the next time.
What Will Their Outcome Be?
You Have a Part to Play…
