A 'Homeless debate' on social media - US or THEM - which am I?

A video was shared recently on a social media group. The video shows homeless people making homes adjacent to the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. The video was accompanied by this comment:

Gra: This was posted on another group. People ask if we can honestly call this one of the world's best tourist destinations. A group of Israelis I was touring with today asked me what is being done to house the homeless and how can the city allow this to happen. This is not the only place this is occurring. 

Derek: Tnx Gra. We need to embrace what is real. The homeless do not have a place to go to. 

 To which I made a comment:

Me: I have very mixed feelings on this subject. I have dealt with many homeless people. I contribute to many homeless shelters. I believe that some of the people who go to homeless shelters go there hoping that they can improve their lives so that they can become the opposite of being homeless and provide for others. 

     My grave concern is for many that appear to me to choose to remain homeless, receiving, but with no real determination to be contributors. I worry that I may, at times, have added to the problem by giving to some beggars who are still just beggars years later, begging at an intersection where others are trying to sell stuff in order to earn a living. Begging in places where there is a lot of litter and they don't care enough to clean up what they appear to choose as their home. 

     I am glad that we're told to not judge, but to leave judging to Him who knows the heart. I happily lay the burden of judging at His feet and just try to give responsibly in the hope that I will be judged fairly.

Some chatting about the plight of homeless people, followed be:

Derek: Which ever way we look at it. The homeless population (for whatever reason) is growing exponentially, and are being more restricted for places to go to.
My response: I've often looked at them and wondered why most of them are not at their fatherland farming and providing food and employment for people rather than hoping that someone will provide for them. 
     I've looked at pictures of starving people in various countries and they are surrounded by open land with no crops growing. 
     I've spoken to someone who abandoned his farm because the irrigation does not work. When I asked him why he didn't fix it he replied that the white man does that. 
     Each person needs to find solutions rather than being stymied by problems and always expecting someone to provide for them. We changed our babies' nappies, fed them and clothed them. But we expected them to grow up and become self-reliant. 
     Our constitution states that every citizen has equal rights and spells out those rights. Then it says that every citizen has equal responsibility. I have yet to hear any politician tell the citizens of South Africa to not expect the government to be responsible for each person's rights but that each citizen has the responsibility to ensure the rights of every other citizen. That is what democracy is...

Further discussion over a few days, and then a response to my previous comment:

Unknown responder: You’re making an assumption that these people are all black when in fact there are increasing numbers of white ex-middle class people amongst these homeless. This US and THEM talk is very counterproductive and creates more problems than it solves.

So, I wonder if the US or THEM refers to homeless vs homed, black vs white. US and THEM also often refers to privileged vs underprivileged, advantaged vs disadvantaged, straight vs gay, or any other 'opposite' groups, but in either sense, I believe that I can affiliate to some degree with each of these groups. 

I grew up in a family with a reasonable home, but we had a simple old car, and generally simple things. I remember feeling really privileged when my father bought a slide projector. This was the 'entry level projector' that was fully manual. I later noticed many of my acquaintances who had fancy carousel or automated slide projectors. I realised early in life that my parents invested in educating their children rather than in fancy clothes.  That broadened my viewpoint.

I remember a friend asking if he could buy a really old pair of jeans that I had worn to the point of it falling apart because the fashion was to wear what looked like worn-out jeans. I always bought the cheapest jeans and wore them as long as I could and he was offering me more than I had paid for them. I still cannot understand why someone pays for something that looks like it would not pass a Quality Control test because it has holes in it... That broadened my viewpoint.

In 1973 I spent a night in prison in Empangeni. My three companions and I were not guilty of any crime, but we were locked up in prison because we had no other place to stay for the night. Each of us was given a blanket similar to the one that I had had in the army the previous year, but the mattress was simply a thick layer of felt. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have often slept under the stars in various parts of the county, including one night that I was entirely on my own in the Namib dunes close to a dry river bed, and all that I could hear that night was the barking sound of some hyena and the singing in my ears. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have spent hours on Sundays or days off wandering on my own in the Namib Desert, savanna, Kalahari, Namaqualand, Succulent Karoo, Nama-Karoo, Fynbos, spekboomveld, grasslands, on beaches, and other open spaces all around our delightful South Africa, South West Africa/Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland/Eswatini. I walked many kilometres on each of those days. All that I saw besides the wonderful vegetation, landscape, sky and the environment, were buck, ostrich, beetles, lizards, snakes, birds, of many species and animal life forms, and on rare occasions another human being. That broadened my viewpoint.

I slept on my own, on the ground, in a tent in Sperrgebiet. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have spent time alone with people of many race groups and nationalities, with just two of us, or groups of varying sizes, discussing life, eating, socialising, working, sleeping in the same room, bungalow, or tent.  That broadened my viewpoint.

My already sympathetic feeling of respect and honour towards the LGBTQ community was enhanced when a gay colleague said, when accommodation was limited for a meeting, that he would not share a room with any other man because it would make him feel unfaithful to his partner. That broadened my viewpoint.

I remember in about 1983 when I was teaching at a Jewish school, and a Jewish colleague turned to me while a young male scholar was talking disparagingly about the informal settlements near the Cape Town airport, 'I wonder if he has been to Tel Aviv and seen the informal settlements there?' That broadened my viewpoint.

I have a child married 'across the colour bar' and I have a grandchild of 'mixed race'. That broadened my viewpoint.

I have been unemployed on at least four occasions. I had to hire myself out doing odd jobs and repairs. That broadened my viewpoint.

My wife has been permanently incapacitated and unable to work in her profession for nearly 20 years. That continues to broaden my viewpoint.

My wife and I were astonished to hear on the news that the aircraft Helderberg, a Boeing 747-200 Combi, 'experienced a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area, broke up in mid-air, and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board.' We had flown on that same aircraft in July 1981, about 7 months after its maiden flight, and while flying over the Atlantic Ocean at about 11pm I was aroused from my sleep by a strange noise. Looking out of the window I saw lights flashing past us and asked Sally if we had landed - to which she said that we had not. Damage had occurred in one engine and after landing we discovered that debris from that engine had been thrown into the neighbouring engine such that we flew for several hours and landed on Ilha Do Sal (Sal, Cape Verde) where we waited 24 hours for a replacement aircraft to take us on to New York. That broadened my viewpoint. And yet, I still fly on aircraft, old or new...

 

Our flight on the Helderberg in July 1981

One of the passengers pointing at the point of the explosion.

I am far from perfect - I acknowledge that. But I hope that I am becoming less and less prejudiced, and certainly not discriminatory, as my viewpoint becomes increasingly broadened and inclusive. I love our national mottos. When I was young we often quoted Ex Unitate Vires (transl. "from unity, strength", Eendracht maakt macht, or Unity is Strength), and in our present era, ! ke e: /xarra //ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, literally meaning Diverse People Unite.

I feel it appropriate to share something that I shared in response to a video blaming all whites for causing all of the corruption in the ANC government or the EFF party: I am a cheeky ou, Colin. I ask myself - if Sterkfontein, Mapungubwe, Agulhas plain, and other notable sites in South Africa are sites of the cradle of humankind, and if I am descended from the first humankind, am I any less at home in the Fairest Cape than is someone with a darker skin and darker eyes? I reckon that I have just returned to my fatherland. If that is the case and I am as at home as anyone whose ancestors wandered away and then returned, then our skin colour is simply a sign of genetic variability and we are as equal as anyone can ever be. What is the problem of someone who blames 'whites' for anything that he does not want to accept as being his own fault? Somehow that sounds a bit like 'hate speech', prejudice, narrow-mindedness, or something like that, and more a part of the problem that part of the solution 🤔 But then, what do I know? 😉

I hope that anyone reading this will have his or her viewpoint broadened and seek to be inclusive and not exclusive, united and not divided, a builder and not a wrecker, part of the solution and not part of the problem. As imperfect as my efforts are in this regard, I continue to try. I hope that my mind, mental and emotional capability, and my brain and body, will enable me to always continue to try to be intentionally open-minded and inclusive as I advance in years.

I felt impressed add more thoughts that you might be interested in reading. See 

'A promise of an eternal marriage for LGBTQ+ individuals - well, for anyone'.

Some thoughts regarding love and same gender attraction

Behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words

These thoughts were triggered by my study of Come, Follow Me this morning. I hope that your heart will be similarly softened.

Perhaps a good example of my heart being softened as mentioned in 1 Nephi 2:16 relates to the 1978 revelation on the priesthood. 

When I was on mission in 1973 I had not been uncomfortable with the teachings that related to why the blessings of the priesthood and the Temple were withheld from people descended from the seed of Cain. That is what was taught, and I saw no real reason to question it. I had inherited the Bible that my brother had used in the first part of his mission in England in 1967-1969 (it had been stolen from his parked bicycle, and then miraculously returned to him), and he had some notes regarding the priesthood and the seed of Cain, and I was interested in what he had written. I also had a few impressions that were part me as a 'European' citizen of  South Africa and I recall feeling support for what the same brother had said 'I believe in the principle of separate development' - allowing the rights and freedoms of indigenous people to study, do business, develop and live in ways that were natural for them without the pressures and expectations of the white ways that might have been burdensome to them. That made sense to me, but the policy referred to as Apartheid was somehow not really compatible with this principle as I understood it, but this was simply not a matter that 'occupied my mind'. 

My mother had taught me to be considerate and respectful - comments like 'Remember - that goat herder on the mountain in Transkei can probably speak more languages than you can.'; 'A gentleman treats even a cowgirl as a lady.'; 'The world needs street sweepers - but more importantly, the world needs excellent street sweepers.' taught me to value and respect each goatherder, cowgirl, streetsweeper and other person. I hope I was reasonably living up to those ideals.

My father started serving as manager of the Presiding Bishopric Regional Office in about 1976 and it was the time when people in Africa were starting to respond to the Gospel message. It was clear that they were not simply 'the seed of Cain' in nature. Whatever may or may not have applied to their ancestors was clearly not applicable in at least some of these good people who desired the blessings of the priesthood and the Temple. Like some Lamanites whose hearts were softened and were more righteous than some Nephites, this was clearly a matter of choice and not biological inheritance. 

Then, one day we heard on TV that was now part of South African life, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was going to extend the blessings of the Priesthood and the Temple to all, regardless of race. I thought - I am comfortable with the proposal, but I'll not accept it as truth until I receive it directly from Church channels. But now the thought 'occupied my mind' and in the hours between hearing the announcement and receiving the official communication from the Church I knew in my heart that it was right, and that this was essential for us to be able to fulfill the mandate of the Lord Himself in Matthew 28:19-20. 'Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.' 

I later came to know in my heart that, whatever judgement the Lord might, or might not, have had on the seed of Cain, He would now judge anyone who now rejects the seed of Cain. Whether or not they had been under His condemnation, I would now be under His condemnation if I held on to previous prejudice. I am the one being judged now. 

Then, as we approached 1994 in South Africa, my heart was softened regarding the integration of all races in our own nation. I recall thinking that my heart had been changed before the stroke of the pen of the State President made integration official. The law now required me to open my heart, but the Spirit had already opened my heart. The stroke of the pen could not do it. It had to come from within. I could relate to Boyd K Packer's explanation that 'True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.' He said this in October 1986 and often expanded on it. I was changed - my heart had changed - before the law required my attitudes and behaviour to change. My heart had been softened by the Lord through the working of the Spirit. 

I am saddened that this revelation on the priesthood that was a special part of my heart being softened was something that precipitated the hardening of the hearts of some of my dear brothers and sisters. It is sad that they no longer walk with us in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I look forward to the time when their hearts will be softened again.