What an afternoon! I guess as far as Hubby and I, all went smoothly making our way to the hotel in Newark (New Jersey) to drop off our luggage, then to the rental car return at the airport and then making our way via airport airtrain to the local hotel bus shuttle stop and on to our hotel. At the airport shuttle stop, I overheard two young foreign adults with hiking packs, clearly in distress, telling some American travelers from Las Vegas that their hotel's shuttle was yet to come after two hours. The Los Vegas couple had no advice, so I decided to step in, at least being a New Jerseyan. Hubby refused. They had no internet access, so I looked up their hotel. It was a 10-minute walk from ours, so I told them to just take our shuttle and walk to theirs, given their age and lack of inconvenient luggage. Though initially reluctant, they followed my suggestion with no problems. They turned out to be from the Netherlands. I even let them photograph the google walking directions from my phone.

En route to the hotel, the sights of Newark were quite depressing and clearly shocked the couple. I sort of knew Newark is a sadly poor city, but as a Central New Jerseyan from quite wealthy areas, it shocked me, too. After Hubby and I arrived, we walked a short distance near the train station and the depression of the place, and some of the people in it, made me realize that life can be MUCH MUCH MUCH worse than anything I've experienced. Clearly severely mentally ill wandered in tatters of clothing, a couple with skin conditions not unlike mange. A particular man appeared to be quite psychotic. Police on most corners, surely waiting to be sure none "caused crimes", for which many are sent to jails and prisons. Not typical ERs or psych hospitals that other more fortunate patients complain are horrible. I guess most scavenge through trash cans, go to soup kitchens, and/or ask for handouts for food. There's surely violence towards them, with women most vulnerable. We overheard one 40/50-something year old woman (in distressed appearance and dragging a suitcase) ask a pretty young woman for money, claiming her boyfriend kicked her out and she was 2 months pregnant and homeless. That may or may not have been true, but she was clearly in a desperate situation. The pretty young girl stared with obvious sadness, wondering what (if anything) she should do. My husband and I passed by, doing nothing. Sadly, what most people do. So, I helped those traveling Niederlanders, but just left the others behind. Yes, I pitied them greatly, but didn't know what to do for them beyond the letters I've sent to congressmen, including Cory Booker, the once mayor of Newark and current senator. Cory Booker is a very sympathique kind of man. I know it hurts him, too. But he alone can't sufficiently ease the tragedy either. His vote, like his fellow senators' from large population states like New York, Illinois, California and the like, is just one of two for the state. The same number that more sparsely populated states have. Two senators per state. Yup.