’T is a cruelty
To load a falling man.
The Bard of Avon’s observation can be cut and pasted into the crux of my concern about the poor treatment of the vulnerable at my town’s homeless shelter.
I grew up with fables about cruel kings and their unfortunate people; a merciless step-mother and two mean-spirited step-sisters; a malicious being forcing a princess to guess his name or else … and many more.
Later, reading some of the works of Roald Dahl to my older daughter, I once again ran into fictional persons with an affinity for cruelty who were put in charge of others – most notoriously, Miss Trunchbull, the school-master in Matilda, who behaved despicably toward children and kindly teachers, whom she considered weak.
It is, as Shakepeare points out, cruel to add misery to a person in dire straits (the circumstances, not the band). It is sad and wrong-headed to bring anguish to people while telling them you are only trying to help, and that you know what is best for them.
The Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter would make a great fictional tale, but, is instead a sad reality.
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