This is one of my “pinhead” posts. Posts I write when I’m tired of stupidity. This time, I’m tired of the ongoing debate about whether homeless people “SHOULD” have cellphones, as if there was a law that made communication illegal for the poor or homeless!

People in general are cruel when it comes to the homeless. On the one hand they want to help them, but ONLY if the person is TOTALLY without resources and destitute. And THEN they blame them for being that way! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard extreme anger, even rage at the idea that a homeless person has a cell phone! Wake up and get a life. Pre-paid cell phones are as cheap as $19 for the phone and $10 a month for service. That means the homeless person has access to a way of calling the police, a friend, or applying for a job. Yet the media would have us all believe that a homeless person with any technology, including a $10 Walmart watch, is a liar, scammer or cheating the system, or using the phone to deal drugs. Get over it.

The fact is, 85% of homeless people had real lives before the economy and lay-offs forced them out of their jobs and homes. They were middle-class, working people with boats and camping gear and ipods and cell phones and laptops and cars. And now they’re homeless, unemployed and have sold, pawned or put everything they have into storage with friends or family members or at a public facility while they search desperately for jobs. They may get stuff out of of storage to sell, or they may get rid of everything they own for the money. Giving up their cellphones and laptops and tools is like throwing away a life jacket. Possessing a few high-tech pieces of equipment is not an indication a person is not homeless. Be glad if a homeless person does have those items - it means they’re doing everything they can to hang onto them and to find a job.

When you’re poor and you lose everything then the slippery slope becomes a deadly cliff. You can no longer afford to keep your car repaired so it breaks down. If you can’t get it inspected or insured you’ll probably lose it - and the only chance you have to get to a job - particularly if you live in a rural area. If you get a ticket on top of everything else and can’t afford to pay it - you lose your driver’s license - making it even more difficult to get a job.

The same holds true with clothes, health and everything in your life. Without the means to keep things repaired, licensed, turned on or operating in order to make a living - you’re out of luck. So then the bleeding hearts come along and insist that you be totally bereft of even a $20 prepaid cell phone? Give me a freaking break. Then put YOUR cell phone aside for a month and see how well YOU function without it. Get the picture? Then stop condemning the homeless for acquiring the tools they need to find or create work and get off the streets. Better yet, buy them a phone and a year’s worth of service. Quit judging and start helping. If you’re not helping solve the problem you probably are the problem.