“The average person has a hard job. This is what I mean by that. I go out to speak at groups all the time, and I ask them, ‘When you think of homelessness, what images come to mind?’ And I always hear dirty, drug-addicted, smelly and cardboard signs…all those kinds of phrases. And they’re right. They are kind of dirty, kind of smelly, and they do hold cardboard signs. And then we call them a human being. Right? The homeless person. Why can’t we just admit that whenever we think of homelessness, those are the images that come through our minds?
“So the average person, what we need to do is, reverse that. We need to look at ourselves and realize that I’m really no different, right? I do things in my own life to help ease my own pain, my own suffering, my own addictions, right? They just happen to be more socially acceptable, right? So, what we need to do is look at ourselves and go, I’m really no different than…so there’s no more other.” – Mark Terrell, Cup of Cool Water, Spokane