A Human First and Foremost

The video of Mr. Ronald Davis, a homeless man, demonstrates many valid points and also opens one's eyes to reality. Too often in our society, we view the homeless as lazy or unwilling to try to get a job. We don't know these people's lives or their struggles, and we presume ourselves knowledgeable enough to judge them.  As a consequence of our culture's individualistic streak, many people assume that it is totally within one's power to pull themselves out of the misery they find themselves in. Many people ignore that homelessness isn't a lifestyle choice; it's forced upon people by circumstances outside their control. In other words, a tragedy such as a house fire or hurricane forces people to live and panhandle on the streets to remain alive. Many times it isn't the homeless person's fault they must beg for money, or that they can't get a job. Like Mr. Davis pointed out, the homeless face challenges that most people do not in trying to obtain a job: a call-back number or address, for example. This realization opens one's eyes to the contingency of a person's social circumstances and reinforces Christ's message of helping those less fortunate than yourself. Put simply, it's often not a homeless man's fault that he is in an unfortunate position, just as it was not by my doing that I was fortunate enough to be born into a steady family. All people being equal, we must attempt to give the less fortunate a chance to get their lives back, a chance they will not get otherwise.

Ronald Davis's message reflects another basic teaching of the Church: the inherent dignity of all people. Catholics believe that God created humans in His image and likeness, and in so doing assigned us dignity by virtue of our humanity. Sadly, many people ignore intrinsic human dignity and instead view others as inferior or not as worthy as they for success. Mr. Davis mentions passerby who call him "a bum" because of his unfortunate position. They probably view him as sub-human, reducing his own dignity by begging on the street. Like I mentioned above, these people judge the unfortunate without knowing their struggles. To echo Mr. Davis's words, he is a  human first and foremost and as such deserves love and respect from all people. It is the utmost tragedy when circumstances out of one's control reduce one's standing in the eyes of other people because the unfortunate do nothing to deserve it.