Being and Homelessness: Notes from an Underground Artist When John H. Sibley brought his manuscript of "Being and Homelessness" to WordsworthGreenwich Press, it begged of its editor a multitude of questions.

This is a true story of John Sibley's life as a homeless artist living in the streets of Chicago for six months during a winter there. John is a truly gifted artist who has created beautiful, stylized portraits of jazz greats in Chicago.

In a civilized society what responsibility do more affluent persons have to those who are much less so? If money is power in America, as it clearly is, then how would John's voice ever be heard? If John's experience is instructive, then who would listen to this humble voice?

It is the first question which tests the mettle of the great American civilization. To date we have largely utterly and completely failed those who through no fault of their own, except in most cases catastrophic misfortune, have been driven out of their homes and onto the streets in dire poverty.

Don't say this can't happen to you. Any of us at any time can be driven by catastrophe into the streets. If you go into the streets to minister to the homeless and speak to them about their stories about what brought them there, then the sham of every stereotype about homeless persons becomes exposed for the fraud that it is. We are one lost job, one serious illness, one lawsuit, one catastrophic weather event, one IRS audit, one failed business, one death of a spouse from homelessness. If you deny this reality, then you are living a dream world -- a bubble which life will be happy to burst at any time.

One in six Americans will go hungry today. Sorry but this is a national disgrace. We can and should do better. But how?

One FOX News Commentator last week advised the poor to "just stop being poor" as if dire poverty and homelessness were a condition that anyone would ever voluntarily seek and perpetuate. Can you ever imagine living penniless in the streets of Chicago over this past winter?

Republicans have managed to cut school lunches for poor school children. They have cut-off emergency unemployment benefits to those who have been unable to find work in a jobless cycle that has punished the nation for five years. Responding to the political dog whistles of the elite, 40 times they have sought to repeal Obamacare. They counter with tax cuts as if the homeless or hungry American children would somehow be saved by a tax write-off at their income levels.

The income inequality gap reaches epic proportions. How greedy can you get?

The response by House Republicans is that the poor deserve their poverty. They have earned it. They are lazy, ignorant, dirty and unworthy of financial rescue by the very civilization that has brought Congressional members so much wealth. It is true that we are governed in the overwhelming majority of Congressional delegates by multimillionaires.

Time will bring many of these proud, elitist men and women kicking and screaming to humility in 2014.

Are there any members of Congress who believe that they have been sent to Washington, not only to govern the affluent, but also all the people of their districts both rich and poor?

Do any humanitarians reside anywhere in Congress who will pay any regard at all to the suffering of those living in their districts in dire poverty?

I want you to know that at least one humanitarian represents CT in the House. His name is Senator Chris Murphy.

A few months ago I read that Chris spent one of his days-off with a homeless person named Nick at a homeless shelter in New Haven, CT, which has many desperately poor sections among Yale, all the hedge funds and suburban Wall Street wealth resident among Connecticut's "Gold Coast" on Long Island Sound.

To the best of my knowledge no other US Senator in my lifetime has undergone this humble exercise to understand the suffering of one of his constituents.

Here is the story in Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01...

So I sent him a copy of John H. Sibley's book, "Being and Homelessness." A few weeks letter I received a response from Chris.

"'Being and Homelessness' is an extremely eye-opening story and I admire Mr. Sibley's courage in coming forward with its experiences. I can only imagine what it was like for Mr. Sibley and for the countless other homeless individuals suffering in the streets of Connecticut and across our nation. The crushing burden of homelessness is a problem that is too often ignored... It is important for stories like Mr. Sibley's to be told just as it is important for us to continue to raise awareness about the struggle of the homeless... The more real faces we can show of those surviving on the margins, the harder it will be to ignore the growing concern of our poverty and homelessness crisis. I value contributions such as 'Being and Homelessness' for adding another voice to that conversation," Senator Murphy wrote.

You may preview his letter in full on the Facebook Page of WordsworthGreenwich Press at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wordsw...

There is a glimmer of hope that some few people actually do care about the well being of all their constituents.

Why does this matter?

It matters because future generations looking back at America will measure our civilization not only by how the wealthy prospered but also by how we as a nation addressed the suffering of multitudes of our homeless living under our watch in dire poverty.