April 11, 2014

"What am I gonna do for the next 8 hours"? The thought plagued my mind as I pushed a shopping cart full of possessions through the warm Palm Spring night. For some reason, none of the street lights were on, or any lights inside of houses. Must have been a power outage. Still, not a visible star in the sky. I looked behind me and saw Martina slowly pushing forward, obviously tired from the long walk. When I met her outside of Ralph's she was eating her dinner, which consisted of hot dog buns and ranch dressing. She was an elderly hispanic woman, about 65 and claimed to be disabled, suffering from bio polar episodes, depression, anxiety and a slew of other mental health issues. While she did have possession of her medication, the rate at which she would forget and repeat questions, stories, and gain or loose interest reminded me of how unfair these diseases are. We were making out way to AM-PM with a guy named Jason, who said it was the best place to wait out the night since they were opened 24 hours. He had just been released from jail on 250,000 bail. Even had the paperwork to show. While commonly I would not had involved myself with the affairs of these people I felt a familiar connection. I equate it to the human connection. It's a screwed up system we live it. When president Nixon had all institutions that house mentally unstable people closed, the exchange was disability checks and social security. Many ended up homeless after a while. Martina was one of these people who not only had family in California, but from what she repeated frequently throughout the night, one of them who was in the hospital and had her debit card and was using the money from her account. While these may be the rants of someone on the cusp of mental collapse, explain to me how the streets of America serves as a better residency than a hospital under the care of a physician????
While I wish I could say all was taken care of, I had to leave them upon arrival at AM-PM to continue my walk. Since the shelters stop taking people after 5:30pm, and with Coachella attendees arriving in Palm Springs the police were told not to allow any tents in the residential area, I walked until I hit Palm Desert.