NEW YORK

When I was 16, I had the opportunity to travel to New York City with a church group. Our group was made up of high school students from all over the state of Indiana.  

When we deplaned at LaGuardia and collected our luggage, we immediately stepped onto a tour bus for a two hour look at the city. 

So we were moving through the streets of the The Big Apple and the bus driver was speaking into his microphone and pointing out the various landmarks.

"There's the Statue of Liberty across the bay" and “we are about to pass the Empire State Building” and all of us students were nodding along and glancing left and right, wide-eyed but passive. 

And then all of a sudden one of the students yelled, “Look! A bum!” 

All the teenage passengers on the right side of that bus jumped to their feet, crossed the center aisle and crushed against the left side passengers to get a look out the windows. 

"Where? Where?" "Oh, I see him!" 

None of us had never seen a homeless person before. 

The poor can be quite invisible to us. And unfortunately, when not invisible, they may not be much more than a curiosity.