Nassim sent out an email talking about a memorial service for the homeless that had died in this area in the past year. Looked like the last outdoor thing I could do before the rains set in. Went down to see what they had to say. I got there after they had started, but not that much.
Each of the tombstones represented another person who had died on the streets of San Jose.
Some guy was talking about what a stain on the soul of our fair city the death toll is.
Spiritual advisors/Priests/Rabbis/etc. with a moral duty to talk about the issue were lined up to say a few words on the matter.
They all had different ways to ask us to care about our fellow man who's down on his luck.
This was followed by the reading of the names of the deceased. They broke it into a page each. Sometimes someone knew who that name was and said a few words about that person. One lady talked about a guy that just got tired of all the b*llsh*t and hung himself. Another was a woman that was so close to getting housing all worked out and had a fatal drug overdose.
Then there was some open mike time. The first guy said "Ten years ago when we started doing this the numbers were 25 dead in a year. Now it's so much worse."
Spiritual closing words. Wish I could remember them. 826
