Seattle Washington

Mike Leco — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:52:00 GMT

They call it Emerald City, the green gem in the Northwestern corner of the USA. Seattle is a wonderful place. It sits on a series of rocky hills almost surrounded by the blue waters of two mountain-fed lakes and a broad Pacific Ocean Inlet. From various vantage points throughout the city, you can catch glimpses of the snow capped peaks of the Cascade Mountains to the east or the Olympic Mountains to the West. The southern horizon is dominated by the immense snow capped volcanic cone of Mount Rainier..

Baskets of multicolored flowers hang from the lamposts of the downtown streets. The sidewalks are crowded with casually-dressed young people hustling along to their high-tech jobs at Microsoft, Adobe, or Amazon. Bookshops, organic food stores and shops selling outdoor gear attest to the fact that this is a city of healthy, well-educated and environmentally conscious people. Yet, all is not well in Emerald City.

On a visit to Seattle last week, I was suprised at the number of homeless people drifting about this northern paradise. They were lounging about the park benches and accosting pedestrians on the downtown sidewalks with their pleas for a few extra coins. Even in the suburban parks, where children play and mothers take their babies for a bit of fresh air, one could find homeless men and women napping on blankets or sleeping bags under the shrubs and trees. Their dilapidated cars and vans filled to the brim with bags of clothing and miscellaneous household goods were parked around the periphery of every park.

There were two varieties of homeless in the city. The young slackers with their trendy clothes and expensive backpacks were there by choice. They willingly fled their homes in cities and towns across the USA to seek the environmental beauty and adventure of the Pacific Northwest. These young drifters cheerily approached the business folks and the tourists asking for a bit of spare change, so they might continue to live and play in this desirable city.

More piiable were the elder and clearly destitute folks that were reluctantly begging for a few coins to pay for some food or for a place to sleep. In the suburban parks, they seldom begged for money. One grizzled old man, dressed in ragged jeans and shod during thie summer heat in plastic ski boots, approached us with a ragged teddy bear asking if our grandson would like it. He hoped, no doubt, that we would exchange a few coins for it. When we refused, he quietly walked on. In his other hand, he held a pair of cowboy boots, and went searching for someone with a need for them. On the park bench nearby, a Native American woman with several plastic bags filled with clothing stuffed handfuls of dry breakfast cereal in her mouth and slowly chewed and swallowed it.

If anyone should doubt that this economic downturn has hurt people, I suggest they go to Seattle and visit a few of these parks. It is sad that there are people reduced to this state, especially in a country that is so well endowed and so wealthy.

Life in the USA : Pacific Northwest

Seattle Washington