Uncomfortable Reminders

This is Billy Bob and the Consortium
Let’s Have a Conversation Today

Seen as Uncomfortable Reminders
Of Problems Not Solved

There is this show I used to watch before this happened and one of the references this powerful guy used to say was fix the broken windows. Why fix the little problems before they become the big ones? Well, me, Johnny Boy and the rest of us are the reminders of the failed idea of fixing broken windows. So, let’s see what will get stirred up today:

They stand at the corners, at the lights, at the exits we can’t avoid.
We call them folks so we don’t have to say human.
Easier that way.

They are reminders — not just of failure, but of how thin the floor is beneath all of us.
And because we’re tired, overloaded, and angry, we decide the reminder is the problem.

So we say they did it to themselves.
We say we have enough of our own trouble.
We say away with them.
Hide them. Warehouse them. Remove the mess from our sight so our conscience can rest.

But removal isn’t healing.
And silence isn’t resolution.

A society that solves discomfort by erasing people doesn’t become cleaner — it becomes colder.
The moment we stop seeing humans, we start rehearsing cruelty and calling it order.

They are not trash.
They are not interruptions.
They are the receipt for systems that failed quietly and individuals who broke loudly.

The question isn’t why they are there.
The question is who we become while they remain.

Because once “away with them” sounds reasonable,
it won’t be long before someone decides you are the reminder they’re tired of seeing.

Initial Reaction from the Consortium

I still would like to know who the brains behind these here stupid questions are; they are saying it will help them learn how to help us, and I say, nay, it is just to get us all upset and mad.

Triggers and now reminders as if their lives were perfect and in order and totally storm proof and ready to withstand an assault in the private arena that they were not expecting, illness, sudden disability, home loss, job loss, or the like, please.

 These here are sneaky folk, they toss a question like a softball knowing exactly what it will do, darn. But since we are stirred up, I guess their experiment is already working, so let’s just move on to the question, please

Round Table Discussion/Frustration

I am jumping at the deep end, where the sharks roam today. I am unhappy with these subjects, but we agreed to be test bait, so we honor our word out here, it is the only thing that keeps us alive. But let me state something that no one wants to hear right now: when you call us reminders, this is why: you look at us and you see what could happen to you, and you become very frightened. You see us suffering and struggling and having a bad day or a real bad day, and immediately you wonder, ‘what did they do wrong to deserve that,’ self-protection from yourself. You don’t dare say, but for the grace of God, there go I

Bill here, you know, you are reminders to us as well. Reminders of homes, houses, food, shelter, protection, freedom, and hope, and yet we do not scream at you, demand you leave us alone, or that you be removed from our areas, so what is your problems? Oh, yeah, you can’t get away from us, we are all over the place because of a lot of decisions you have made in the cities and towns, and communities that drove us to the streets through unaffordability. Our money can’t stretch that far anymore so the streets had to welcome and then e become reminders to you no longer neighbors.

Hey, it is Mike and I am tired of you housed folks, you don’t care and you can’t even pretend anymore your own lives are so messed up, but you won’t face truth, you would rather complain about us. Throw us into convenient boxes and categories so that you feel better when a reminder pops as you see us suffering on the streets, but enough, I do not care. I used to be one of you, housed, warm and fed but then life flipped and it was over, but I was still alive, sadly.

Hey guys, have you seen the looks we get when they lock eyes with us and when recognition hits them for just a moment, that moment when they realize they could out here with us if their lives stop moving for just a moment in time, it is so fragile. It is actually sad, but at the same time, they are so mean because they are afraid, they throw things at us, speak hate-filled words, and call the police for no reason, just mean. It is we are the receipts for the systems that have failed and allowed them to fail over the years as well as the bad governance, why, why?

Riposte

reminders—
quiet sparks of fear in those who pass by,
echoes of what may come,
shadows of a future no one wants to name,
if the floor caves in under them,
if the ground they trusted betrays their step,
if the world they know shifts, tilts,
and refuses to settle back into place again.

We are the receipts for systems that failed
and were allowed to fail.
Not accidents—permissions.

They fear becoming one with us out here,
because we stand as proof
that the distance between them and us
is thinner than comfort admits.

We are not rumors.
We are not cautionary tales.
We are the evidence walking,
breathing, surviving—
street people.

We are the receipts for systems that failed
and were allowed to fail without consequence.

They look away because they are afraid—
afraid of becoming us,
afraid of seeing how close they already are.

Out here, we carry the proof they bury:
that safety was never guaranteed,
that stability was borrowed,
and that street people are not anomalies—
we are the bill that finally came due.

No housing.
No rent we can afford.
No food security.

Yet we are still labeled the problem.
Not the systems.
Not the policies.
Not the profits built on displacement.

We are the reminders—
that something is broken,
that safety is fragile,
that the floor can fall out from under anyone.

So they try to erase us,
because reminders are uncomfortable.

The question isn’t will change ever happen—
it’s who is willing to be disturbed enough to make it happen

Okay, Our Turn, We Ask You Some Questions:

Our Hope that you will see through the superficial topic of discussion, seeing us as quiet, pain-filled reminders, 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 regarding the reminders in your life before judging the ones in the lives of the homeless person you just saw

See the great divide presented today in this discussion, here is where the pain surfaces, here is where the divide comes in, here is where you decide, too much or you can hang in for the truth

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

You hide behind fear, mindsets, laws and rules, using them to self-protect, like we tried to talk to you about. When we hit the truth of, but for the grace of God, go anybody in the homelessness situation, you freaked out.

We talked alright, all about the convenience boxes that you use so that the reality of debt, medical bills, hours being cut does not shake your house of cards. Instead of looking in that show box at your receipts, you are looking at us and stepping into fear mode, shut down, and not into solutions.

We all do it, even us dumb houseless guys, the old days, the better times, the less stressful times, when food was plentiful, when rent was affordable, gas was cheap and we could care for family and others with ease, but they are gone. What is the new reality you want?

What Will Their Outcome Be?

You Have a Part to Play…