What To Do About Branson's Homeless? Let's Count Them!
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 07:50PM Those of us wintering here in Branson have few expression options during this seasonal "downtime". The "A" people have all SUV'd out to the Branson Creek Airport and taken AirTran's flights to 9 cities in Florida. We the "B" people left to guard and maintain the fixed assets stay busy shoveling snow, making trips to Home Depot and avoiding the legion of anxious patrol officers. The "C" people, less their seasonal minimum wage jobs, are in wood heated hibernation save weekly trips to Walmart. Sadly, our "three caste system" is not all-inclusive. Branson has a large and increasing presence of "Homeless People". Exactly what "homeless" means in the local dialect is not clear, but at minimum it references those men, women and children who have no permanent residence and rely on public assistance and charity for food and clothing. They are really just a subset of the "C" people class; those who have inadequate extended family support to team tag the winter.
Unlike the Indians of old, the "H" people, I understand, do not migrate away from their summer camps "down by the river". Many of Branson's "homeless" occupy tents and make-shift dwellings in the rugged wooded areas along Taneycomo, just down from "The Strip", "The Landing", and "Skaggs Hospital". Those with somewhat more means crowd into the "weekly motels" on the low end of "The Strip", paying daily charges with cash from undisclosed sources. Most receive free meals at the churches where "B" people in search of meaning gather to celebrate their "relatively" good fortune by passing out potato chips and cookies.
In most respects this story is universal. There is little about Branson's "homeless" that isn't so for homeless throughout our great nation. The notable exception is that within a four iron of the tents, caves and shacks are 20,000 upscale residences, all furnished appointed and empty. Of course, I am speaking of the condos, timeshares and suites occupying the high ground around and about Taneycomo. These multi-family "fixed assets" controlled by the "A" people are, of course, "off limits". They are "private property". For the "homeless", it must be like starving in a NY deli. What to do about this "cultural empass" where the "A" people claim exclusive entitlement to the fruits of their labor and the "H" people can't perform enough labor to get beyond their travail? Perhaps something better will happen in the future but until then, this week the "A" people gave a token amount of money to the "C" people to gather for a day to count the "H" people. Next week, we will have a report telling us how many are their number. Hurray!
Reader Comments (2)
Dido! Now lets do something!
Lets ask them how that "hope-y change-y" thing is working out for them!
Yes, It's time for a Revolution!
did you post to your own note?