Invisible People

They are all around us but we don’t notice. Are we too busy with our phones or our social media or in such a hurry to get from point A to point B that we ignore them?

When we dine out we may recognize the Maître D’ or barista or have your favorite table and server, but what about those in the kitchen preparing your food. The busser who makes your table look good before you arrive should be unobtrusive even carrying a bucket of dishes and glasses from previous patrons.

Every job has invisible people. Those who work in the backroom stocking inventory or emptying the trash and straightening up for the next morning are invisible people. They may have no interaction with the customers but someone cleans the bathroom.

No matter your layer of the society structure, some just maybe the ‘behind the scene’ people. When there are group selfies, they are in the back row.

And what about the elderly? We want them out of the way because they are too slow to bother with. When they are bused in with walkers and wheelchairs we avoid them like the plague, but old age will get us all.

And those who are mentally ill; apply more drugs or institutionalize those who are struggling to survive in a visible world? With all the pills and potions we all use everyday for our ‘mental’ and physical pains we shun the addicted.

And how about our military veterans? Dress them up with sparkly metals and march them down the street to a Souse tune and we will all cheer and wave flags, but what of those who come home missing pieces? If you are in the medical profession you have to deal with the wounded while the rest don’t remember when they saw a one-legged vet at the beach.

And those who commit crimes are hidden away behind walls of razor wire. After their picture hits the most wanted list, they become invisible. To segregate people who are unwanted in society will keep them invisible until they can get paroled or breakout.

And the homeless who may work hard but not make enough money to pay for gentrification are invisible? As they sleep under bridges or in doorways, we walk by as if they were never there. We may pass a buck to the cardboard sign at the stoplight but you can solicit here unless you are girls selling cookies or a red bucket.