The man on the street with his bags and a couple of things. Everything he owns fits in the shopping cart he carries back and forth on the streets. Cars honk him as he tries to cross the street and people push him down if he walks too slow. He is looked down upon as the man who "won't get his ass up and get a job" or " a lazy slob taking residence on government sidewalks" Nevertheless, he is a man. He is a man like the one you see wearing a suit and tie. He is a man like the one with his friends and family by his side. He is a man like the one who has six cars parked  in his garage. He is a man. He walks up  and down the unforgiving streets with a tin can in one hand and a sign that says "please help, homeless and hungry" in the other. He sleeps in the city's train cars that only go so far until someone kicks him off. He showers in the in the city's murky water and wallows in his own self pity as the city lights go off. He looks for a comfortable alley to stay in and builds a fire out of the scraps and heaps he finds in the dumpsters. Tomorrow, he has another long, hard day. He wakes up and still finds the world is unforgiving and cruel. He is knocked down kicked, pushed and prodded. The woman with the twenty bags in her hand can't even put one dime in his tincan and the city's police officers aren't that helpful " get your ass up and stop tripping people" says one. How long? How long will men and women sleep in alleys and wonder when their next meal will come? How long will we trip over them and not even stop to ask them if they need help? How long will they suffer in silence without one voice to speak up for them? How long will they be seen only as what they have become, but ot what they used to be or who they could be? Most weren't born homeless, but were not as lucky in the dog eat dog world that will spit in your face first and ask questions later. A world where you are judged for being too fat, too old, and too weird. We treat one another like dogs and even stumble sometimes ourselves and most of us complain about this cruel world, yet we get back up and do the same evil to a homeless man to make ourselves feel beter about our situation. Homeless people aren't a burden. They may be homeless, but not hopeless.