top of page
Writer's pictureChris Ossman

Relax, you won't have to sleep in the street forever

Have you seen the commercial in which a young boy tells the viewer to deal with homelessness by overcoming homelessness?  You know the one where it is implied that "you too could make it out of poverty" and all you have to do is ignore your own poverty and concentrate on being the best.  In this case, being the best at football was what got this boy out of poverty and into the one percent.  It was his drive and determination and the millions of positions available in the NFL...  Oh, wait.

How many starting positions are there in the NFL?  For that matter, how many positions are there in the NFL period?  And, if you're not a star in the NFL, how much do you make and how long can you live off that pay when you only have a limited number of years to batter and abuse your body for the delight of the fans, the needs of the family and the handouts of the billionaires in the sky-boxes.

To put it in terms that the majority of us can relate to, if you aren't the best at whatever you do, should you ignore the homelessness that rich advertisers try to brainwash us into believing can be overcome through sheer will and football practice?  Is this implied "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" call to action innocence or ignorance on the part of those same wealthy advertisers or could there be more sinister plans at work here?

You see, advertisers are no longer simply selling us products and services these days.  They are selling us lifestyles.  Be cool like the models we see in commercials; covet thy neighbor's Jaguar "It's good to be bad."; "It's all about the money", so go for the Monopoly.  And, now, the latest fad is to "...be content with your poverty, it might get better when you enter the NFL..." Maybe I'm making too much of these commercial examples, but it does seem as if the message as of late has been to stay calm while you're sleeping on the streets or, more accurately, while you're under threat of losing your home, because, after all, if you've seen the commercial I referenced then you must have been watching a TV inside some domicile.  Or, maybe you are homeless and caught this commercial as you were serving an eviction notice that some bank paid you to serve.  Or maybe you saw the commercial as you were unplugging the TV of someone upon whom the banks had foreclosed.  You know, the banks were paying $27.00 per house to have homeless people evict and ultimately turn other people into homeless people.

Now that I think of it, is "Homeless" the politically correct term, especially when you've lost your home and then were kicked out of the tent in which you found shelter?  Would that be homeless-homelessness or doubly homeless or homeless squared or would it simply be called F#$ked?

I say be uncomfortable being homeless.  Rise up and demand your rights as a citizen, because a nation is an abstract unless there are enough people to coalesce around the idea and ideals of that nation.  I say if you are comfortable in your home then worry about the possibility of the same people who stole other people's homes coming for yours.  As Bernie Sander's requests, fight for someone you don't know, because they might not be there when you need them to fight for you.  The plight you ignore could become your fate.

5 views
bottom of page