In a place where sound, image, weirdness, and creativity have fought for decades to drown the invasion of clean sidewalks and corporate suit shops, an elaborate population of homeless beggars jockey for position at every major intersection. People pace, each with personal advertisements: some, containing thoughtful phrases of experienced panhandlers; others, simply asking for beer or cigarettes.

A middle aged man holds a sign every day typically at rush hour announcing that he can no longer take care of his wife and kid. He stands strategically at the mouth of one the wealthiest communities just west of Austin on Loop 360. Westlake, my old stomping grounds, has long been known for its sea of expensive cars, privately owned independent school district and winning football program, which now accepts students who wish to pay for "better" education and dominant Caucasian demographics. But scraggly men with camouflaged utility pants and thread-bare backpacks don't seem to be taking the hint. Barriers of expensive restaurants, and even more pricy clothing stores line the 7 mile stretch of Bee Caves road and are meant to keep the unwanted out, but homeowner associations and community planners could not foresee the migration which has slowly siphoned street sign holders from South Austin on Lamar north toward the suburbs.

Now, these homeless are treated like an flock of overpopulating geese. If we could get rid of them with blanks and flares, we would. But there are laws against such tactics. So these homeless profit, or get by at least.

Absurd indulgences brings with them a sense of guilt, if for a while, and there emerges a willingness among local country club members here in Westlake to pay for some temporary relief of their tortured souls, one dollar at a time, a small price to pay. Landrover's windows open a crack enough for a hand to reach through while others in line sigh with relief as the light turns green.

For me though, there remains a gulf unbridged between these people and myself, a gap, created perhaps only by a different line of blood. And the longer I observe this increased distance between poor and rich, the more I realize there is something greater at work here. Why do the poor get poorer and the rich get richer?

Thoughts?