Reflections - "Ignorance and Invisibility Not Bliss"

By Jayde Huebner
The weather out side on Michigan Avenue is brisk enough that a coat is needed, but warm enough now to appreciate that spring is indeed on its way.

As people shuffle along the sidewalk and quickly cross the street, a man stands on the corner with a beat up cup in his hand, shaking it so that just a few coins nestled at the bottom can be heard jingling.

Tourists are stopping to snap photographs, people are chatting away on their cell phones and children can be heard from quite some distance running and playing in Millennium Park. However, the loudest presence on the street is often ignored.

The lone man with the jingling cup is most likely the only person that everyone passing sees, yet he is ignored. Seldom is it, that someone stops, drops some loose change and then carries on about their business walking down the street. It’s quite the irony that someone everyone sees and notices is the person that gets the least attention.

Do we choose to ignore him because it allows us peace of mind to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist?

Or are we simply too busy that we cannot be troubled by a worrisome man’s innocent shaking of a cup in attempt to get help?

He is the invisible man.

In fact, the homeless population could easily be classified as Chicago’s invisible society. Everyone knows they are present, and we see them everyday, but the story behind the person is lost.

All we see is the annoyance of the shaking cup, the chatter of the plea for a meal. The homeless are not invisible because they choose to be, but because we make them that way.