Nampa Optimist Club

Essay Contest 1999

Optimist International - Friend of Youth

2nd - Andrea Griffitts

     Do you hear the cries? I hear the cries. The cries of the children, mothers, and fathers are heard across the world every day. Cries of pain, starvation, disease, and fright. Do you hear the silence? I hear the silence. The silence of icy cold nights spent out on the street. Do you know what it is like to wonder where your next meal will come from; to spend weeks or months without a shower, or to actually feel your own teeth decaying in your mouth. People face this reality everyday, all around the world.
     If I could give freedom from worry and pain to the homeless, I would. Everyday hard working families are torn apart by work layoffs. Nobody thinks it could happen to them until they unexpectedly end up on the streets. Where do these people go? What do they do? If you aren't lucky enough to live in wonderful countries like America and Great Britain the answer is nowhere.
     Presently, in foreign lands, the Serbs in Kosovo are running innocent people out of their homes and seizing their land. The people from these lands are forced to escape to the mountains where they are presently living with no shelter nor warmth. How long will these people survive? Who knows? If freedom from homelessness could be given to these people there would be no problem.
     The homeless are not lazy people all of the time. They are human beings who have their homes taken away from under their feet and have nowhere to turn. They are like you and me. It is that something will be done about the homeless people. People will soon realize that one of that one of the greatest freedoms we can give is freedom from poverty.

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