America faces a homeless problem primarily in major cities. It seems that in some areas of these cities there is a homeless individual seeking some sort of handout ranging from money to food. The places that the homeless call home are near high traffic areas but have low income surroundings.

I have never seen a homeless person begging in the hills where the ultimately wealthy reside. I see children with their parents wearing old beat up and ragged clothing to stay warm while they dig through trash to find some life sustaining nutrients. It is a sad image when a child is eating a thrown-out piece of food as if it was served to him on a silver platter. This child does not know exactly when the next time food will be presented to him.

Our communities set up shelters and try to provide the homeless with some outlet to help increase their chance of survival and comfort. The homeless are provided with many different outlets and are given numerous handouts, yet they are seen by a large portion of the American population as constituting a major problem that needs to be addressed before considering aid to other countries.

Our country does not have a real problem with homelessness compared to the rest of the world. America has a solid infrastructure, which can be seen as corrupt by some, but which also allows us to live in wealth within all social classes as compared to more than two thirds of the world. Our homeless people have wealth far beyond the dreams of people living in the majority of the world.

In India, children die everyday because the country lacks an infrastructure and is based almost solely on corruption. Every day children die of disease or hunger because there is not enough medicine for treatment and not enough trash cans for them to all to dig through for food. While serving in the Middle East, I saw children chasing the truck that we would throw our outpost trash from, in order to score a half-eaten meal. Homeless, starving, and dehydrated in a desert that reaches unbearable temperatures throughout the day, these children would take their lives into their hands by raiding our armed perimeter for food. They were fearless and relentless. The sight of a fully loaded machine gun in their face was no deterrent for their quest for food. How many homeless people have you seen go to the extreme for food in America?

Next time that you hear about America stepping up to help a third world country by providing aid to the people in poverty, think about how great all the people in this country really have it.

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