The death of Jason Henry Myrick, 41, is tragic in its own right. Yet tragedy also lies in the likelihood that it could have been prevented but for his homelessness. It is unfortunate that it took Myrick’s death to remind us how he lived.
This community must therefore honor his memory by taking decisive action to address the continuing travesties of poverty and homelessness.
Whether Myrick died from natural causes, self-inflicted harm or an act of violence is unclear as of now. But that matters little in the face of the broader truth of his condition: People experiencing homelessness die at unnerving rates from a variety of types of violence — structural, physical or a combination of the two in which the former precipitates the latter.
It is too soon to accuse this community of forgetting or failing to respond to Myrick’s death. But it has happened before elsewhere, and it could happen again here without conscious efforts to understand this tragedy’s significance to the community.
Those marginalized in life tend to also be marginalized in death.
Long-term change requires that we build awareness of the types of policies that beget poverty and that we vote accordingly. If you have the means to do so, reach out to the many community and campus organizations doing their best to combat homelessness and the problems that cause it.
The Community Empowerment Fund, the Inter-Faith Council and Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication are all deserving of what help we can give them.
