The bad guys...

I was witness to a conversation on the train this morning that made me very sad.

Sitting in the seat behind me was a little boy and his uncle - a young man about my age or a bit older. As we rounded the corner to come out of downtown, we had a clear view of the drop-in center, a major homeless shelter in downtown Calgary. There was the usual crowd of people, milling around, sleeping along the fence. And this morning there was a larger than usual police presence.

As we rounded the corner and the little boy noticed the police cars, his uncle took it as a teaching moment. "Look at all the police cars. There's a lot of them. They have to get rid of all those bad guys."

The words didn't hit home until a few minutes later. The bad guys - these people who, for whatever reason, don't have a proper place to sleep at night, or a place to spend their days. And I was sad that we are teaching children from such an early age that these people are inherently bad because of their life circumstances.

I felt guilt, too. Because, to be honest, I wouldn't want to walk by myself in that neighborhood. It has a reputation for being very unsafe. I've wondered at times why the police don't clean the area up. Why these people can't just go get jobs in Calgary's booming job market.

This is an ongoing struggle for me. Both a calling to love those in the gutters, and a fear of that same thing.

And so, this morning, I'm a little sad, and a little convicted both.