No one is fool enough to think that the holiday season is great for everyone. We know that for the people really struggling it can be particularly awful being reminded of joy and good will if, like thousands of others you don't have a warm place to sleep. No one wants to think about this. I don't especially want to write about it but it's there. I get a daily email newsletter from the New York City Patch news service and 9 times out of 10 it's reporting on some especially violent or depressing crime. Lately, there seems to be a random subway or street attack nearly every day. Was it always like this? Is this what happens everywhere else? Why is this an accepted part of living in the city? I read about these desperate lost souls invading the lives of other people then delete the email and move on. A man went on a slashing rampage and was apprehended a block from my office a few weeks ago. Another incident happened in Grand Central Station in a subway station I routinely take. You thank God (or whomever) it wasn't you at that wrong place and time and then move on. Walking with my wife the otherb night in the Lower east Side we heard a commotion across the street. A young man was screaming, walking into traffic and tossing trash cans at strangers. We walked a little quicker, changed our path and tried to make ourselves invisible. Make the problem invisible.

An obscene amount of money is transferred into very select and specific places to people who must feel like they deserve it as other segments are starved into submission. Those people must feel as if they don't deserve their fate and turn to the last remaining expression available to them. When you live in a society like this  - whether you're a native citizen or have come from elsewhere - it's a tacit acceptance of how things are. Unless you're trying to do something about it. But what can we done? Giving a few dollars here and there to the people begging for help on the street is slightly more than nothing, but barely makes a ripple. The problem seems too big.

When I told a friend about the difference in the homeless population between a city like Seoul and New York, this well-intentioned liberal asked earnestly, "where do they put them?" Maybe the first step is for everyone to learn that this isn't normal or inevitable. That would be a small start.