If I had to make a list of all the things I hate, waking up at 6AM to go to work would be in the top five. All I ask is for a peaceful train ride but on one cold Saturday morning, a homeless man decided to urinate on the train. I was sitting next to where the man was standing and if I had turned my head slightly, no doubt I would have seen an unpleasant sight. I noticed people moving away from where I was sitting and my sister, who was sitting next to me, told me that we needed to move and that I shouldn’t turn around. I asked my sister why and she said because someone was peeing next to me and so we moved to the other side of the car. I was so stunned by what had happened, (it doesn’t take much to set me off), that it took me a while to register that a fight had broken out. A large man with black hair, very gothic looking clothes, and long fingernails (whom I had seen on previous train rides) was trying to tell the homeless man to get off the train because he did not belong on it. Naturally, the homeless man remained in the car and when the doors opened to the 145^th Street station, the man with the long fingernails tried and failed to physically force the homeless man off the train. The doors closed, we were on our way to 125^th Street, and the yelling continued. We were held on 125 and then told to get out of the car and move to a different car. I don’t remember what happened to the homeless man but I do remember feeling a little heavier that day. While I understand that it was nasty and inappropriate, part of me wonders whether the man was aware of these legal, but more importantly social restrictions. Was he purposefully trying to disrupt the morning commute to get a car to himself or was unaware that what he did wasn’t appropriate? The homeless are the pariah of society and are often treated as less than human. What people tend to forget is that it could very easily be their family member or even them in their place; it can happen to anyone. This is not to say that I do not avoid getting into cars with homeless people sleeping on them (because I’m very sensitive to smells), but I will never see them as anything but humans who have somehow found themselves with no home in one of the most expensive cities in the US. If they cannot find or afford a home, if they do not belong on public transportation, and if they do not belong in the streets (often being told to move by authorities), then where do they belong in the meantime?