Preview

Homeless Veteran Monologue

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
577 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Homeless Veteran Monologue
We cannot be more than three car lengths away. My eyes are drawn to him, they are fixed and I cannot pull away. It must be 80 degrees on this hot and hazy Saturday afternoon yet with ease and comfort he wears a green hooded army jacket that also appears to be lined. It is not dirty, but it is not necessarily clean either. It is old! That’s what it is, old. His dulled out brownish salt and pepper hair appears finger-combed away from his face. Surely his full beard provides some protection from the intensity of the sun. His skin is aged, tan and weathered yet his face remains expressionless as if injected with Botox. His back is protected with the shade cast by the shadow of the tree he is sitting under. The leaves of the tree prove to be as unreliable as the conditions of life as they allow rays of sunlight to enter here and there. The light breeze offers some relief as it offers a refreshing cool air and then drastically changes as if blowing segments of sun rays in our direction. As each car approaches, he gazes upward ever so …show more content…
As we approach I now notice the gentleman is propped up on a crate. His legs are crossed and appear to provide the perfect support for his resting arms and hand holding a sign “Homeless Veteran.” Is this crate what he carries his belonging in? Does he have belongings? A moral dilemma begins to erupt within myself. Am I intruding as I peer at him as he encounters each vehicle? Am I interrupting a private moment? Am I invading his spotlight? My eyes are drawn to the ground as I notice a crisply folded, unwrinkled Chick-fil-a bag placed at his feet. His boots are so dust-covered it looks as if it has replaced the black all over. His pants are an unassuming grey-like green. They are modest and seem to serve their purpose without extravagance. His demeanor is calm and quiet. His movements are soft, subtle, and seem to only be executed as a sign of necessity. Without hesitation, the car pulls

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Known as the “City of Trees” for its abundance of greenery, my hometown of Sacramento, California could also be called the “City of the Homeless”. There are staggering numbers of homeless Sacramentans and a significant amount of people who lack consistent access to nightly shelter. On any given night, the homeless population of Sacramento County totals nearly 2,700 people (www.sacramentostepsforward.org), and this number is on the rise.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Homeless Man Refuses – MB2 Headline: When Store Workers Complain to the Cops About a Homeless Man, One Officer Shows Up to Save the Day. Summary: Jerome Gomez was a well-respected officer on the force. When he received a call about a strange man at the local Walmart store, he instantly responded to the call. Introduction: Jerome Gomez was a dedicated, talented officer who always did his best to protect his local community. When he showed up for work one day, his first call was about a homeless man at the local Walmart.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There should be no difference when you providing services at the MacDill AFB job fair, or any other job fair and at the Homeless Outreach Committee. You should prepare the same way, have CSTB tablecloth and flyers needed to inform on Veteran population about CSTB services. You were assigned by Business Services Director…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Richard L. Johnson sits completely at ease in a black jacket, black slacks, and a black long sleeve turtleneck when others would be sweating in this El Paso heat, drinking a venti white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. His only adornment is a simple watch and a silver cross that hangs from a silver necklace. He sips his drink and watches the people coming and going, smiling pleasantly when one of his fellow patrons happens to meet his gaze. But it’s not his appearance that draws one’s eyes to him--even though he is a dark man, wearing dark clothes with a shock of white hair and matching goatee. Mr. Johnson just seems to command attention and…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom eventually stopped after a few miles of lifeless forest passed and suddenly he felt something shift in the back of his car. Tom slowly turned around and remained unperturbed as he saw a stranger sitting in his back seat, staring back at him, and he noticed the car doors were all locked. The stranger was a man who wore a sharp black suit with a distinguished red tie. As Tom looked into the man’s eyes he saw nothing but a vague reflection of himself, his greed and thirst for money. This is when he realized who the man was, Old Scratch.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since then, as a result of VA’s close collaboration with local and national stakeholder organizations, success in ending homelessness among Veterans is happening community by community. State and local governments across the nation Virginia, Houston, New Orleans and many others have recently announced that they have ended Veteran homelessness. Many more communities are poised make similar announcements in the near future…

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Both Dr. Berk-Clark and Dr. McGuire are with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. At the St. Louis Healthcare center (Berk-Clark) as well as (McGuire) at the West Los Angeles Healthcare center. Dr. Berk-Clark has also studied within the Department of Psychiatry and School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. In conclusion, this article is briefly an interview with different groups of elderly homeless veterans receiving transitional housing services. “All veterans within the study reported a disabling medical or psychiatric condition defined as a serious medical condition or psychiatric diagnosis.” (Berk-Clark & McGuire,…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dreadfully needing any type of work, whether it be full or part time that desperation led to his story of how he ended up washing his hair in the toilet and using the soap dispensers to wash up and be as presentable as he could due to his circumstances. Nevertheless, with all his attempts walking for virtually all day and evenings with most nights of no good rest, he still received what he likes to call “the look”. The anxiety of “the look” made such a devastating impact on him that even though he was drained of walking all day and evening instead of sitting down on the e train, he got up to try and evade “the look” again, hiding his unshaven face and grimy hair. Yet the fear alone was not enough to keep this from happening again. Subsequently one day being so exhausted from walking one end of Manhattan to the other with…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many homeless people out on the streets of the large cities in this great nation. With low unemployment rate and new jobs are being created every day, people are starting to ask why there are still homeless people in the alleys and on the sidewalks of this country. This seems to be a haunting problem even though it would be so easy for homeless people to get a job. The general requirements for applying for and keeping a job is have nice clothes to make a decent impression, a home address and some way to be reached in tight situations. That is it!…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Monologue From Vietnam

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Haven’t seen you and dad for a long time. I still remember that day I went to the army to train and be ready to go to Vietnam. Not really sure why we were doing this. But that’s what America offered for us. I wish I could go to college with my best friend Jeff. Do you remember him? The guy who usually came to our house to play with me. I can still remember when we were kids, we broke the flower vase you just bought. You were really mad at me, you almost wanted to punish me. And Jeff said that it’s all me. That’s a good memory for me. But you know what, he died. He just died this morning. Like 3:00am. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. He was ordered by me. I killed him, our captain ordered ask to patrol the village. And I asked him to do it for me. Like I don’t know. It just happened. He saved me, he shouldn’t die. The vietnamese fired all the village. I could not even find his body. This is really ridiculous, he died for me. But he got nothing, except he will get a name imprint on the memorial.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I decided this summer, to use the free time for painting a comic. The protagonist of this comic, I determined, was a homeless person of color living in NYC. Notwithstanding I have been always especially active in my community, and have volunteered in several programs that benefit homeless people of color and LGBTQ, the research I made about homeless people in NY was an eye opener.…

    • 66 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Homelessness is the condition of people without a permanent dwelling, such as a house or apartment.” In the United States over 500,000 people, almost a quarter of them children, were homeless this year. That’s over half a million-people living on streets, cars and or homeless shelters. 49,933 people, veterans to be specific, were identified across the United States as homeless, 51% of these homeless veterans have disabilities, 50% have serious mental issues, 70% have a substance abuse problem. Nearly one-quarter, 23% of the homeless are children under the age of 18. 10% are between the ages of 18 and 24, and 66% are over the age of 25.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Memoir: The Homeless

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The moment I looked out the window of the car and my eyes turned to the row of homeless people weaving its way through the traffic begging for money, I jumped out of my seat. It was my first visit to India after leaving the country for the United States. The homeless people's’ hands were making weird gestures and thumping the windows of the honking cars. I could not digest what I was seeing! While reaching out to an old woman to give her some money, I thought about what non homeless people could do to help those without a home and basic needs. Then, I asked myself a question. Why not give them something that will be with them forever and help them out of their poverty and teach them valuable skills? After all, a mountain of…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nearby, a 90-year-old man and his wife are strolling hand in hand. The wrinkles they wear proudly are a symbol of years of wisdom and stress. The cane he holds is a prop for his weak, fragile legs, which have been worn down from years of hard work. The woman is wearing an old yellow dress with orange and purple flowers that cover the fabric. The dress is a little too old fashioned by today’s standards of fashion. After viewing the shapes people come in, observing their appearance is sometimes scarier.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Biographical Sketch

    • 6964 Words
    • 28 Pages

    Unblemished skin stretches down is face, over his nose, his cheeks, and his chin. He has a nose that elongates down the center of his face into a plump, round tip, where his nostrils flare onto the ground. His cheeks are a set vibrant rose. It is not often that the tone of this man’s face is a balanced color other than the pale shade that is set beneath the rose of his cheeks.…

    • 6964 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Better Essays