We
were getting ready to pack it up today at the park, when a young
woman asked if she could take another plate for her and her friends
to share. She said that they had been staying at the shelter, but
had made enough money to get a hotel room and wanted something to
eat for later that evening. Everyone had eaten, so we packed up
what was left and filled a bag of food for her and her friends. As
we were doing this, not to faraway was one of the young men that I
have know for awhile. He was tweeking and tweeking pretty hard. I
was keeping a eye on him as the young woman and I talked, I didn't
want him to start something with others there. She saw me looking at
him and told me she didn't like him. She then told me she had just
gotten out of prison and was on probation for 15 years and was
trying to do right and he makes it hard for her. I asked why and she
told me that from the time she has gotten out, a lot of the men try
and force her to do things with them. She said this man (the
tweeker) had grabbed her in a manner that I will not go into, she
thought about calling the police, but was afraid of causing problems
and maybe going back to jail. She then told me how the tweeker and
many of the other men have been taking advantage of a woman, I will
call her Sue, who is mental unstable. Because of her mental
situation, she has become a target for many to prey on.
My
son knows a lot of the homeless and goes to the underpass to see
some of them from time to time. When I got home I told him about the
woman I was speaking to in the park and story about the woman being
preyed on. He looked right at me and said that would be "Sue".
You know her I asked and he said he did. He went on to tell me about
how (in his words) "The drunks and druggies use and abuse
her".
As
I talked to the woman in the park, she put on a hard exterior, but
there was softness to her. A lost little girl that only wanted to be
loved. I saw this in her when I told her about the beauty I saw in
her and how no man had the right to use and abuse her in any manner.
Then I think of Sue and why someone with her mental situation
is on the streets and why there is not help for people like her. It
is hard enough being on the streets and trying to survive day to
day, but to be a woman on the streets is twice as hard. A woman not
only has to just survive, but has to fight to not be preyed on,
abused, raped, prostituted and the list goes on and for someone
like Sue, who may not understand what is happening to her, god only
knows what horrors she is going thru. How do you protect them, how
do you find help for the Sue's out there? I don't know, but I know
it needs to stop.
Pray
for the women on your streets.......no matter what city you
live in, you have those who are being preyed on and they need your
prayers.
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