This is Billy Bob and the Consortium
Let’s Have a Conversation Today
Pete NO Coffee
Good morning, Billy, how are you this morning? I think I am better than you Pete, what is wrong? Did someone steal your coffee this morning? No, I did not want any, I am upset and getting more frustrated by the day and coffee cannot fix it. Yikes, are we having our talk time today? I guess, why not, maybe that will help if I don’t scare the others off.
Barb, help, how are you on this day? Pete, what is up with you? Where is your famous coffee cup, I think this is not a good start for the day! I will not bite or explode, I’m just sad and frustrated and am not sure of the importance of going on and fighting this fight much longer. Okay, let’s talk, this is real dark, real bad, Pee, coffee, please, let’s try to go through this together, we are friends, okay? Okay Barb, but you know the frustration, just like Frankie here does, how much can a human take, and how much cold shouldering from the world can a soul take before the weight is too much to bear? We are homeless, but are we no longer human?
Hey, friend, what sparked this downturn in the outlook of the life we already know is tough beyond words? Facts, numbers, stories, statistics, and the sheer inhumanity that is rising beyond hope of ending it. Elderly homeless suffering on the streets, dying when looking for a home, teenagers tossed out on the streets, jailed for being homeless, all assumed to be addicts, alcoholic, mentally, no help, no food, no help, no help, no help, it is too much, too, too much. Oh boy, Pete, you have yourself in a pickle sandwich. I know, but I have struggled so long with the fantasy of one day this will all change, that I just can’t do it much longer. The struggle is not worth it anymore.
What triggered this? I mean something tipped you into a no-coffee zone, what was it, friend? You know me, I love to read and search for good articles to read, but sometimes they are not good for me to read. Yeah, but those articles get our conversations going in the morning, that is good for us out here, helps our brains not slow down and turn into mush. You are welcome, but this one that I read two days ago made me just flat-out angry and mad! Okay, want to talk about that story this morning, even with no coffee? Yeah, if y’all don’t mind my frustration.
69 years old, retired, PTSD untreated, mental health issues through COVID, back injuries from work and she was evicted and died homeless. What, sow down Pete, that can’t be! Now do you understand my mood? Yes. There was no help, no answers, calls, the judge in the court had no mercy, the ABC soup of government agencies had nothing, and her past incidents and situations left her with very little support. This system is so broken that it cannot be restored, it has to be blowed up and be built all over again.
Wait a minute, what about the Supreme Court, what did it decide about us, homeless folks? They threw us under the bus as expected! So, no shelters, no help we can be sent to jail without questions being asked, is this why this lady died homeless looking for help? Partially. They said she needed hoarding consoling and help, and they did not ask her if she was a hoarder, they assumed, they wanted her to get rid of her cat, they expected her to do all this while she was unwell and injured and with untreated PSD.
Pete, that is the story of so many out here, and they are slipping away from us, from hope, from life and nobody knows because they are either in jail or dead in an unmarked grave. But, but, she died, no one cared, except one lady who when nothing else could be done, made sure she was buried with dignity. But, is that all we can now look forward to, death??
Pete, here drink this, we will all feel better if you have some much-needed coffee brother! Thanks, it is just hard, there are ways to help us off the streets, we are not helpless, hopeless bums without a hunger for a better life, but they, the system, don’t want to see that no more. Pete, the Pandemic made it much worse for us, right? Yes, and the stupid decisions of our leaders that cannot think straight did not help us either. Pete, what is going to change this and turn it around? Frankie, ain’t nothing going to turn this around, we are on the very course that they want us on, our of sight and mind!
So, what you are saying is that this lady that made it into the news is the lone wolf we got to read about and the tip of an unwelcomed iceberg that no one wants to admit exists, Pete? Yes, there can’t be only her dying while waiting, think about Perry, Steve, Cat, Cowboy, Don, and so many others we have crossed paths that are not here anymore! What has happened to this nation? I gotta go, I need to walk for a minute or two, I will be back tomorrow guys, sorry, I am really not good right now, bye.
Hey, Billy Bob, do we need to follow him, will he be okay, he is not in a good space right now. No, following him right now would be the worst decision, let him blow for a bit of time and tomorrow will see him better. This lady, whoever she was, really got to him and upset him. I think is was someone outside of us that is facing the problems we face and there was no one to catch and she fell to her death so to speak and Pete ain’t afraid to get mad like we is.
Frankie, the move to give him the coffee break was just the right move, he needed to come up for air, he is our thinker and yet thinking don’t always do us any good. And right now, that lady, passed on or not ain’t doing him too much good. Oh, Billy Bob, we have all been there, this world, these laws, this state, these situations, are all leading us down a road that has only one outcome, and it for sure ain’t roses.
Guys, tomorrow morning like make sure we are here as early as it is safe to be moving around, and let’s be ready for a good, maybe tough morning, but we need to be here and really try and engage in a conversation with Pete. We are going to have to learn how to help these hopeless ones out here so they don’t end up dropping dead the moment they lose everything, we must learn more skills and more ways to help, no one else will.
I agree with Barb, let’s break for the day and scatter and get prepared for tomorrow, any news on Pete, sound the alarm! Be safe, find food, and get rest, and see you in the am, blessings.
Hey folks, this was a tough morning for us all, this was a real lady with real problems, who did not survive, we don’t normally get so serious in our morning talk, but occasionally our Coffee Thinker brings one from left field. This is trust present to y’all in a different format, start thinking, start looking around, there are dying ones all around you, be compassionate, please.