HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS – The Woe of Nowhere To Go

Last night, while driving home from my mens group, I noticed a young man standing alone in a bus shelter. It was the motion that caught my eye. Rocking back and forth, hugging himself in a flimsy, white blanket, his breath made clouds in the 20-degree air.  

I’m guessing he had nothing on under the blanket but pants, a shirt, maybe a very light jacket. The shelter was quite dark, so I don’t think the infrared heaters were working. 

AN ILL-FITTING GARMENT
I often wonder about strangers, especially when they’re alone—who they are, what they’re doing, what’s their story. But for some reason, in this fellow’s case the question that struck me was, Where are you going?

Are you on your way home? Going to see a friend? Off to your night shift? I probably shouldn’t read too much into such details, but somehow the blanket feels like a poignant answer to those questions. A garment less chosen than scrounged. 

PHOTO: Lily Fulop

What if, I asked myself, you’re homeless? What if all your family bridges have burned? What if the next bus provides the only shelter you’re going to find tonight? Do you even have the fare?

And, again, that insistent question: Where will you get off?

              How easily we take for granted 
              our destinations in life.

DESTINATION: SURVIVAL 
The young man drew just a passing glance, but he’s been on my mind ever since. It’s not just curiosity and compassion, but also sadness. For, even if my reckoning on his particular plight is misplaced, I know there are countless others tonight for whom it would not be.

How easily we take for granted our destinations in life. Appointments, a job, social occasions… Even if our engagement’s with no one but a favorite place, we’re very seldom without an aim in our comings and goings.

PHOTO: Kidstuff Counseling

But when the notion of belonging somewhere lies beyond reach, do you think a person’s idea of “destination” might change from one of place to one of time? How long can I stay on this warm bus? When will they kick me out? 

For some—like perhaps this young man—the aim is simply survival. Can I make it till morning?

        I’ve decided there must be some purpose, 
        some intent, in my having noticed him.

CAUSES, EFFECTS, REMEDIES  
I used the same excuses most of us would for not stopping and just asking the kid these questions, maybe helping him out. Instead, I weigh his fortunes from afar, from a world of warmth and belonging.

Nonetheless, I’ve decided, there must be some purpose, some intent, in my simply having noticed him. And, yes, in contemplating the causes, effects and remedies for homelessness and its attendant ills.

In 2024, it’s estimated that .23 percent of Americans—roughly 770,000 of us—
experienced homelessness.* 

To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be out anytime soon looking to engage, face to face, folks like this young man who look displaced. But I am moved to find and start supporting an organi- 
zation that provides effective, reliable “housing first” services and programs here in Minneapolis. 

Among those I’m considering: Avivo Village—which provides indoor communities of “tiny houses; People Serving People—focusing on keeping people in their existing homes; or the United Way—which engages citizens, businesses and organizations in combating homelessness. 

PHOTO: Steven Maturen for MPR News

Just imagine how it might feel if, especially during this busy, destination-rich holiday season, you had nowhere to go, nowhere to be. I hope that, like me, you’re moved to help our fellow citizens—like my White-blanket Man—whose home might very well exist only in their dreams.

* National Alliance To End Homelessness 

OH DEER! – Harvest Or Holocaust?

I just read an article about this year’s white-tail deer-hunting “harvest” here in Minnesota. And it’s got me thinking. 

For years I’ve wondered whether hunting—or for that matter fishing, which I love—are even morally defensible for one who sees himself an evolving human being. But I’ll leave that concern for another time. For now, let’s just say I wonder if most people realize the astounding number of deer dying at human hands.

When I was a boy, I read—probably in either Boys Life or Ripley’s Believe It Or Not—that in Pennsylvania alone over 30,000 deer died that year just being hit by cars! That’s when I first became aware of the sheer number of deer that must live in our fields and forests in order for that mortality rate to not completely decimate the population. 

PHOTO: Maciej Bledowski / Adobe Stock

So this latest article renewed my fascination with cervine mortality. It’s led me to both revisit those roadkill stats and add to the mix deaths exacted by hunters. Here are some of the recent statistics: 

Here in Minnesota, the number of deer-vehicle-collisions in 2024—virtually all resulting in the animals’ deaths—was estimated at around 40,000.*

And the Minnesota hunting toll? Somewhere around 171,000.** In one year. In one state. And Minnesota is far from the deadliest place for deer. In Pennsylvania, the body count was an astounding 476,000.***

PHOTO: Deer + Deer Hunting

    Some 6,000,000 deer die annually at the hands 
    of hunters. That’s a venison Whopper of 
    nearly a billion pounds.

IMAGE: Shutterstock

FLESHING OUT THE STATS 
To grasp that number, imagine a sold-out crowd of Philadelphia Eagles fans packed into Lincoln Financial Field—around 70,000 people. Now, let's imagine swap-
ping out every one of those human beings for a white-tail doe or buck.

Now shoot and kill them. All of them.

Next, haul out and truck away all those carcasses and in-
vite 70,000 more deer to the stands. And kill them too.

PHOTO: KUAM News

Repeat this turnover six-and-a-half times. 

Or, let’s look at it another way: by weight. The average deer weights about 150 pounds. So that 2024 Pennsylvania hunting season delivered a bit over 71,000,000 pounds of venison, hide and bone. (This begs the question, doesn’t it: how much of that meat was actually consumed by the hunters?)

PHOTO: Peak to Plate

Again, this is just Pennsylvania. In the whole country some 6,000,000 deer die annually at the hands of hunters.**** That’s a venison Whopper of nearly a billion pounds.

For further perspective, consider that human murders in the U.S in 2024 (according to the FBI) totaled about 17,000. U.S. human deaths the same year from all causes: around 3,000,000. 

How we can cull such numbers of these beautiful woodland animals year after year and still see well over a hundred times as many of them in the U.S. as there were a century ago?***** (In fact, many now see deer as pests, an invasive species.)

There are several factors: wildlife management practices; adaptation to changing habitats and conditions; and the decline and/or relocation of the species' natural predators. I guess thinning the herd by 6,000,000 doesn't make much of a dent when that leaves 30,000,000 of them, all breeding faster than we can kill them.

       Ultimately, it comes down to us human 
       beings’ troubled membership in Earth’s 
       family of sentient beings. 

INFORMED BRUTALITY
For me, one takeaway from my research is to recall that admonition we always hear from our vegan friends—and others promoting thoughtful consumption—that we should all know the brutal facts about where our meat comes from.

PHOTO: USDA

(Believe it or not, one of the standard field trips for Linwood Park School, my elementary school, was a visit to the meat-packing plants of South St. Paul. There we did, indeed, witness the live animals conveyed into the abattoir and the carcasses conveyed out; the awful cacophony of machinery and the animals’ desperate bleating; gutters coursing with still-warm blood.)

Another much broader effect might be to ask ourselves if we take too much of life—especially non-human life—for granted. As a species arguably well on our way to destroying our precious planet, we persist in such hubris at our own peril.

Again, my point is not to impugn hunting, fishing or consuming animal protein. After all, many of us were compelled by our native environments to be carnivores. 

But we were also destined to evolve. 

So let's be thoughtful, my friends. Let us first appreciate the vastness of our planet, the sheer numbers of our fellow organisms—like deer—with whom we share it.

Let's learn to be more aware of our tenuous membership in Earth’s family of sentient beings. Understand the life-and-death consequences of everything we do. And recognize the manifest oneness of Creation.

PHOTO: Whitetail Deer

                                    
* University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies
** Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 
*** Pennsylvania Game Commission
**** National Deer Association