Hapless Homeless Herbage

This blog isn’t about unfortunate, homeless, plants, so if that’s what you came here for I’m sorry. I know, the title is misleading, but I thought it was funny. I’m weird like that. This piece is about homeless people. I think about them a lot. I think it’s because I seem to always cross paths with them and when I do, they seem to take an instant liking to me. I think it’s because I smile at them, either that or the fact that I always listen to their stories. Perhaps it’s just because of my “kind, non-judgmental eyes” that I lay on them. Who knows, maybe it’s because I smell like tuna fish.

 

I’ve always wondered if homeless people ever worry about their stuff being stolen by other people. I don’t know if you ever seen where the homeless hangout, but they accumulate a lot of stuff. It’s almost like it’s their home without a home.

 

I came across some rather funny literature the other day that had to do with homeless people, but I need to set this up first…

 

There are two money hungry entities in the world of municipal improvement. They would be professional engineers and contractors. Each one has a strong blood lust for money. The engineer wants a big fee to use his/her brain to design a road or utility to “help” all of mankind, so noble in deed, I question not my city for handing over my tax money. The contractor is like a small baby, but instead of sitting on the floor crying they just say, “I need more money.” The bottom line of construction projects is how much money can I get and spending money figuring out who’s going to pay for this and that. Enter the stimulus package and every municipality in America came up with 500 million dollars of improvements they needed. One of which was a major highway interchange replacement. Highways that had bridges. Bridges that had homeless people sleeping underneath them, or rather living underneath them.

 

Now this paper that I came across was comments from the Department of Transportation to the engineer asking questions about the project. The one that I found to be shocking and outrageous was, “Who is responsible for the relocation of the homeless and how is it to be paid for?” The answer was, “Usually they just leave the area when construction starts, but if needed the police of highway patrol can be called in.”

 

So if you want a job that deals with ridiculous questions and thoughtless, money driven goals, by all means become involved in civil improvements, you won’t stop laughing and shaking your head.

 

Egg On!

Ramblin’ Rooster