Living Below the Dignity Line

 

    The summer of 2019, due to a drought of directing jobs, I decided to try other gigs. I drove for Lyft. I worked on the assembly line in a warehouse. I worked at King Soopers.

     The King Soopers was in my area. The manager told me that they struggle with theft, people steal single eggs from the cartons. So weird. But also,she said the homeless- a population that had recently traveled west to our suburb and was rapidly increasing- were becoming problematic within the store bathrooms. Nobody minded that they were using them, but they were not cleaning up after themselves, which was why they doubled their bathroom checks. The issue that struck me, though, was that a homeless person would lock themselves in the bathroom with a bottle they'd stolen from the liquor store. They would not answer when the door was knocked on, and some 16 year old clerk would have to break the door down and call 911.

    I have a friend who is a retired teacher, who worked last summer at the ACE Hardware in our neighborhood. She said the managers were constantly battling the homeless who were openly stealing from the store. She said there is a group of them that live in the ditch along Alameda Parkway.

   A Group of homeless, living in a ditch. Stealing single eggs.Leaving public bathrooms unusable for hours.

   All of these examples suggest human beings that are living below the dignity line. Not just poverty,not only financial. They've given up on any chance of feeling like they are human.

   I said this phrase outloud today for the first time, and I wanted to write it down. 

   That's all.

   Scene.