Early in elementary school, there were stretches where we didn’t have much. Food banks. Food stamps. When I was in kindergarten at Wedgwood Elementary, the high school booster club adopted our family one Christmas so there’d be a couple of presents under the tree. And when you’re in that situation, the last thing you want to do is rock the boat.
If someone’s hassling you, you look the other way. When you don’t have much, letting people with power or money walk over you is a given. It tells you who’s really looking out for you, and who’s looking through you like you’re invisible.
Seattle’s poorest neighborhood South Park just got its third major shelter site…