A VERY BIG ISSUE

Jan Tully

We were sitting sharing a meal and I looked up to see him looking away into the distance. ‘I was so embarrassed’ he said.

‘Why?’ I asked. The comment had come from nowhere in our conversation.

‘I was standing there,’ he said, ‘and this teacher came along with a whole lot of students. He turned and said to them, ‘See, this is a homeless person on the street, selling magazines. You don’t want to end up like him.’

My mouth dropped open. ‘He said what?’ He repeated what he had just said.

I sat there, horrified. How dare that teacher be so self-righteous! This is my friend he had been talking about. And let us be honest with ourselves–when someone picks on a friend of ours we are very, very angry.

‘Don’t get steamed up’, he said. ‘This was a year or so ago, but stuff like that happens all the time.’ But I am steamed up, and I want to say something. I want to say to that teacher — and to any others who make comments about my friend — something along these lines:

Who do you think you are? Who do you think he is? I know a small portion of this man’s life. A very small portion. And I consider him to be one of the bravest people I have ever met.

He has travelled the world, since he left his native New York city. He met someone he loved deeply. He married her. He came to Australia with her. She became ill. She died. And during that process he gave up his regular work to care for her.

Out of a feeling of self-respect he chose to sell magazines (the Big Issue, to be exact) to support himself and to continue to assist her. Since her death he has relied on his work on the streets to get him through his profound grief.

He works long, long hours. Hundreds, if not thousands, of commuters know his face and his smile. Ask anyone who frequents those areas and they will tell you, ‘Oh yes, we know him’. ‘Know’ him? Probably not.

So how dare you! You who are supposed to be educating our young people about caring, about understanding what goes on ‘underneath’ in people’s lives. How dare you single out my friend as an example of ’what not to be’.

Having this person as a friend has reminded of and taught me much. I am reminded in all our conversations of the ‘low-grade’ racism which is exemplified in muttered ‘asides’ made to him. He is African-American, although often strangers ask him, ‘How long since you left New Guinea?’, or ‘When did you come over from New Zealand?’.

Having him as a friend reminds of the unacknowledged grief of those who are long-term unemployed and homeless in our society. I am reminded that these people are human beings.

And I am reminded that in the midst of our deliberations on the Republic and the GST and a host of other ‘big’ issues that the biggest of issues–our real concern and appreciation of our fellow human beings–can often be ignored by those who, as my grandmother used to say, ‘should know better!’