Rita Franco ’28

I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the event that changes
the whole world’s perspective of outcasts, known as homeless by society.
Our nation, even the whole planet, has evolved and grown over the last hundreds of
years, while the vagrants remain untouched. Every block or street contains a
disrespected human, seen as inferior and spitted at. People pass by without bothering,
or afraid to look down and meet with the eyes of a dirty face, feeling a few seconds
uncomfortable because they do not want to empty their pockets on someone that is
placed below them in the social pyramid. The best of these people might even throw
them a few pennies, thinking that for today they have done enough to be good under
God’s eyes, but they are not much better than the privileged that do not dare to feel
the existence of these lonely souls under their feet. Kindness is not giving; it is
teaching.

After hundreds of years of poverty, we still do not learn. After hundreds of years of
poverty, we still do not care. After hundreds of years of poverty, these down-and-outs
still have to feel ashamed of their conditions. After hundreds of years of poverty,
homeless people are still languishing in the corners of society, hiding behind the
shadows to not bother other people’s eyes. After hundreds of years of poverty, they
still do not learn, why? Because we do not teach them.
In a sense, we found a starving bear in the woods. Afraid but also compassionate, we
feed him with what we can find, and the bear feels satisfied, but that fish that we just
gave him will not feed him for long. Everyday we keep feeding the bear, thinking that
we are doing him a favour, confident that he will grow and turn into a strong,
independent bear, but no, that does not happen. The bear grows being dependent on
us; it cannot walk or eat without our help, but we can not do much more. We are
running out of fish, we are running out of energy, we are running out of life.
After our death, the bear dies a couple of days after, starving until its last gasp. Why?
Why did the bear die if we fed him? Because we gave him food while we should have
taught him how to hunt. At the end, nothing changed; years passed, but the bear still
starved. Back to the day when we first gave him that fish, we should have taught him
how to hunt it instead of destroying its life and our own life. Back to the day when we
first met him, we should have given him the recipe of success instead of the well
cooked fresh tuna.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. I understand that after the sacrifice that you have made to be able to
stand here next to me, you are not willing to listen to children’s tales; however, this is
not a simple tale. This has a moral, a lesson, and a big truth behind it. In this modest
chair, I stand here today to ask all of you, my brothers and sisters, to stop ignoring it
and to make a change today. If we all get together and help, teach, and give these
people of no fixed abode a ladder to climb out instead of a shovel to bury themselves
deeper in, we can change their lives and our lives. I do not ask for much. If you do not
own a ladder to share, you can always give them a smile or a conversation to remind
them that they are not less. To build a smile on their faces.

Please… help me achieve this dream!