The Concept of Human Dignity

So what is human dignity? Some people would say it is the basic rights that all humans are granted by God. I would go even further to say it is the right that everyone has to be respected and loved as a fellow human being, no matter what their story is. So many different people come into the soup kitchen where i do my service: mentally handicapped men and women, war veterans, drug addicts, and prostitutes. The worst is all of the people who were raised on the streets and never had a choice to not be homeless. Yes, almost every race and demographic is represented in some way, but we are all united by at least one thing: human dignity. I met a native American man who came to Baltimore from Omaha, Nebraska. He had a job, but he relied on the supper club for food because of his monthly child support checks to the mother of his bastard child back home in Omaha. I don't know what this man saw in me, but whatever it was, he wanted to tell me his story and have a conversation with me. During that conversation, i knew I wasn't looking at a poor man from Nebraska; I was talking to a human being as deserving of my respect as I was of his.

This kind of stuff happens all the time at the Supper Club. The other volunteers there have conversations of their own with the drifters, and occasionally you see a friendship develop between a regular and one of the employees. You can just tell by the look on their faces that they are truly happy to see each other and they pay attention and want to hear what the other has to say. Most of the time, these conversations are started with a simple "Hey, how're you doin tonight?" or "You enjoying your meal?" I myself have a friendship in its early stages with a fellow music lover named Bill (odds are we would have the same name). We sit down and talk about different composers and famous show tunes while he eats his meal, occasionally stopping while I go to wipe down a table and set it up for the next guests. This is the kind of stuff that breaks the breaks the class barrier and brings us all one step closer to God.