Gleaning Facebook: Andy On the Homeless AND Refugees

 Andy Offutt Irwin is not only a wonderful and hilarious storyteller, he is also a thoughtful and principled person. He expressed my thoughts better than me today on his Facebook...

This morning I saw a meme on Facebook that read, "I WISH SOME OF YOU CARED ABOUT HOMELESS VETERANS... AS MUCH AS YOU DO ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES."

These words were mounted on a photograph of a veteran slumped on a park bench. He is obviously cold within his camo jacket, his capped head in his hands. A worn backpack at his side. He is the pitiful being on the streets whose gaze we avert.

But the either/or, two-dimensional condemnation of this meme gets under my skin. Somebody took the time to surf around the clip art sites, pick a font, type the words, and reduce this man's image to something that "could go viral." ("LIKE IF YOU AGREE!!!")

I have no way of knowing if the person who created this social media finger-wagger has ever volunteered at a homeless shelter. But I can tell you this: the majority of folks who do stay up all night to help to feed and shelter the poor and homeless in inner city church basements and repurposed bus stations, the people most likely to boldly make their way into abandoned buildings to help lift up the most damaged and forgotten of the "least of these my brethren," the people who possess the compassion (and risk the heartache to nurture that compassion) to dirty their hands on the blood and literal shit that accompanies such work, those are some of the same people who are going to go home, shower, take markers to poster board, and head to the airport so we won't have to dismantle the Statue of Liberty.

- Andy Offutt Irwin