This afternoon while traveling around the Aurora-Denver metro region doing campaign and similar work I stopped in at the office where the Gay Lesbian Bi-sexual and Transgender (GLBT) people meet.
Quite a few of the people there are on and off the streets. Many have HIV/AIDS. Some are on parole, and all are just a step away from homelessness. Joblessness is the norm. Survival is how you live day to day. Being clean is their goal. And not just getting a shower every week or so.
The office and building is a friendly place to go for help and talk. A place for transgender people to find safety. Next door is the office where gays and lesbians can go for the same.
Fortunately the operation has donors to keep it afloat in these terrible times. Unfortunately there is very little hope for these people to find jobs and become self-sustaining in the near or possibly long term future.
Today was like yesterday and tomorrow will be like today. When I asked around about what the people sitting around thought about having a new president there were two responses. "We need money down here" and "we need jobs".
For all the high talk about the "bailout" money, these people know where it will never end up - with them. Their lives are tough and will forever be tough due to so many issues. The economy talked about in Congress and the White House, the economy talked about on the bobble-head cable network shows, the economy most of us know as middle-class citizens is something they laugh at. It is as foreign to them as Bush's brain is to us.
I do not have solutions that will make headway into their lives. I have ideas to help them. But, with an economy in the outhouse pit there is very little extra they will see.
But, they have learned survival on the streets. They also want to help themselves by earning a living and proving they can make it on their own. The question is will anybody in Congress and the Colorado legislature find a way to actually do good for them?
Looking through the goals listed on WhiteHouse.gov I hoped to find something substantial, something material that would be available in the next couple of months. There was some talk of jobs and education, but that is a goal not a directive. Congress is not a help right now. The republicans are promising to oppose and delay anything that might be good for our country; but not in those words.
Sometimes I feel less than hopeful as a city council candidate when confronted in these situations. For many us "bleeding heart liberals" these times require more then the celebration of a new President to make a change in these people's lives. The optomism spread throughout the U.S. and the world won't filter down here for a long time, if ever.
I do have hope that I can do something. Being creative is necessary in the agencies working to make lives better; all the monetary resources are in decline for them too, so being creative is necessary.
One thing I have done is to bring in a GLBT representative to the city. A person very familiar with the streets, and surviving on the streets should get the attention of the city. Hopefully, this will lead to greater understanding of what is happening in the community. Sometimes a little living example of people far removed from their own communities will awaken a desire to help (hopefully).
Please remember that a portion of our country's citizens need more then a parade today to live.