Scrolling through Facebook a few days ago, I ran across an article that caught my eye. The headline was “Florida Ordinance bans homeless people from using blankets.” Curious as to who in the world would take the time to create such a heartless and in my mind stupid ordinance I clicked on the link to get more information. As I read the article I found that it was based off of events happening in Miami Florida. Lawmakers in that area have decided to ban not only the use of blankets but of anything that you could use to cover yourself up when you’re cold, if you were homeless. It is also illegal to provide the homeless with blankets and they have also made it illegal for them to use public restrooms, to panhandle and to camp. As the author of this article Reagan Ali states, “The series of bans has made it effectively illegal to be homeless.”

I was horrified after reading this article. I had no idea that people could be so selfish as to take away a humans basic needs. I then began to question why someone, in this case the mayor, would create such a ban. What benefit does it bring to others to make it so the less fortunate in our society have nowhere to sleep and do not have the ability to keep themselves warm? The only thing that I could think that would drive someone to make such a decision was lack of knowledge. Maybe the mayor believed that by banning basically the entire lifestyle of the homeless that it would make the “problem” disappear. This is called stupidity. People who think like this are naive. They do not understand the way that the world works. There are poor people out there, and have been for hundreds of years and as we’ve seen in past history pretending that they don’t exist only makes the problem worse. And taking away persons right to a blanket does not benefit a single person involved. Because when you take away someone’s basic right, like their right to be warm or their right to use the bathroom you basically strip them of their humanity. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty upset. And the homeless, contrary to the belief of some, are real people with real feelings and are actually a huge part of our society. You wouldn’t tell your friend or family member they couldn’t use a blanket when they were cold, so why would you tell someone else those same words?

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/02/florida-blanket-ban/#