Article July 1, 1996 Issue

Indignity isn't man's true status

Tony Lobl

Street people with their bags and their hopelessness can sometimes overwhelm us with pity. At other times maybe we just dread what their pictures say about society or about our own feelings of helplessness.

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph featured an interview with a woman who lived rough on the streets for thirty-two years. The Daily Telegraph, January 13, 1995 . She suffered indignity, substance abuse, violence, and sexual abuse. Seven years ago she started slowly but surely to put all that behind her. She has since gone on to obtain a degree in English literature and women's studies from a London university and is currently preparing to earn her master's degree.

A turning point for this woman was when two particularly degrading experiences led her to pray, although up until then she hadn't considered herself religious. She felt the answer to her prayer came as a willingness to go to a treatment center for drug and alcohol abuse. Step by step—and with some backward steps along the way—she pulled herself up by the bootstraps. She now looks forward to helping others out of the position in which she found herself.

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