“They Arrested a Homeless Man in a Shelter for Being Homeless.”

So you thought that was impossible in Poor and Rich America?

( Second in a series about being poor and/or old in America)

It happened to Al Szekley,a Nam vet who was shot in the spine in Fu Bai in 1972.

I see vets like Al all over the place but especially at patriotic events in downtown assemblages all over America.

They usually sit on curbs right next to the band shell and they are usually fractured from the pot/booze combo. I am a sucker for people who are hurting, but when I see a Nam vet especially one in a wheelchair,I get a lump in my throat.There is a special glow about them almost like a halo.

Al was sitting in his permanent prison on wheels on G St. in D.C. He lives here and sleeps here now. At 62, he is just entering the ranks of the poor and old but he has been poor for decades.Eight months ago he was evicted from a homeless shelter because of an outstanding warrant which he never answered. The warrant was for sleeping on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb.

Follow me closely.

The odds are that if Al slept on a sidewalk in any city in America in his wheelchair they would just let him be. The keyword here is SUBURB.

It just happened that Al ran afoul of the law in Virginia but it could just have well have been in any ritzy suburb, let's say for an example ,Spring Lake, N.J.. They give you a ticket for parking your car in the street overnight in Spring Lake.

Can you imagine what those people in those 5 million dollar houses overlooking the Atlantic Ocean would do with this homeless vet sleeping in his wheelchair in front of one of those stately mansions?

Oh my God. Think of what it would do to their resale values? Oh the shame of it.

But back to Al Szekely. Let's look at the whole story. Obviously,I suspect you well off suburbans are thinking; Al must have a lot more in his background than is being covered by the left wing media.

Not so.

Al is an "ordained minister,who does not drink,do drugs or curse in front of ladies" according to Ms Ehrenreich, NY Times columnist.

So you see the headline to this article is real . I happens every day in Poor and Rich America.


They do arrest homeless men in a shelters for being homeless.