Meet Jen, a Real Hero

As I was walking toward Harkins Theatres at ChrisTown Spectrum Mall, a friendly voice said, “Hi! How are you doing?” It belonged to this lady, sitting next to this car. She is Jen, and she is one of the people who pick up loose trash that lazy people couldn’t be bothered to throw away in appropriate receptacles. “It’s not the homeless,” she says. “Homeless people pick up after themselves.”

I held up my plastic bag, full of wrappers that held the snacks and lemonade I bought at Wal-Mart, which opens before the rest of the mall does. “Wal-Mart trash!” said I, referring both to the stuff in the bag, and people like me who shop at Wal-Mart.

Jen had a lot to say about how the homeless are mistreated, “basically being shooed around” by the police and other authority figureheads. I told her the sad story of Adam Vespoli, who had been shooed off a freeway underpass, then off a Valley Metro bus, and then, tragically, into an early demise by the City of Phoenix Police Department. (See my blog post “Five Stars for One of Them Was Mine by Susan Vespoli” for more details.) Her face went sad. She understood the injustice, and the way homeless people are vastly misunderstood, neglected, and abused.

“I talked to a Lyft driver about homelessness. HE told me ‘homelessness is a choice.’ Made me mad. He didn’t get any tip from me!” Jen also talked to one of the ChrisTown security guards, a new hire who seemed to think that the homeless were part of the trash-mess. “I set her straight on that. Part of my job is educating people.”

I thanked Jen for giving back to the community, raising the quality of local lives and helping make our community more civilized. I told her I’d make a blog post of our conversation, in hopes that it would educate more people about the plight of the homeless. Lastly, I took a picture of her and her company car, thanked her for a wonderful conversation, and wished her well.

Friends, if you are a Valley resident who wants to similarly contribute to Civilization, Jen’s company is hiring. See the number on the side of her car!