Think Twice | Teen Ink

Think Twice

July 13, 2012
By Danaite Hamnot SILVER, Springfield, Virginia
Danaite Hamnot SILVER, Springfield, Virginia
8 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Surfing the web a few weeks back, I came across an article about homelessness in Greece reported by The Daily Beast. It was refreshing something made the news other than ruthless republicans and pregnant teenagers. The article reported about how the country’s inflation has caused vagrancy rates to soar. With more than 20,000 people roaming the streets of Athens, it was devastating many had become victims to the evident economic downfall. The story impacted me greatly; I acknowledged the measures taken to provide shelters and food will never be enough, and there will always be an abundance of people waiting for help. Once reading the gruesome details, I concluded it’s merely impossible to solve issues such as homelessness without tackling the underlying issue- to efficiently resolve the economic turmoil. I gained a new appreciation for my living conditions and developed a new perspective on the concept of being homeless. The accumulation of three years of debt was prominently the driving force behind the epidemic, not the personal decisions of those who became homeless as a result. Until that article, I believed homelessness was due to the lack of self-motivation but I have now lost that narrow-minded perception. I’ve now realized obstruction in society can negatively affect those who didn’t create it.



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