They look DEAD - and, I suppose, to a large part of society, they are.
I'm sitting at an extremely well-known fast food establishment one day and I
overhear the following conversation between a homeless guy and an
employee of said establishment - the homeless guy doesn't have enough
money for anything on the menu, and so he's asking the guy at the counter if
he could just give him something - it went as follows -
"Oh, I don't have enough, even for that - uhh - do you think you could give me
a break and help me out with something to eat? I'm STARVNG."
"Well, no, sir, I can't, you have to pay for it."
"But I don't have enough."
"I know but you have to pay for it."
"But I can't."
"I know."
"So you can't help me out?"
"No sir."
"Why not?"(A legit question)
"Because I can't."
"You can't? You CAN'T? What do you mean you CAN'T?"
"You have to PAY for it, sir. I can't just GIVE it to you."
At this point, the homeless guy is getting really upset, for obvious reasons,
and then another employee comes along and reaches over the counter and
gives the guy a burger - Free Of Charge. And of course the homeless guy is
ecstatic, and proceeds to berate the other guy who wouldn't give him anything -
"You see? You SEE? HUH? HE gave me something!!!"
No response.
He then turns his attention to the guy who did give him something and starts
thanking him and asking him if he was going to be a manager someday and
so on and so forth.
Sooo...here's my thoughts on that - SAD fact is this - the guy who gave him
the burger, if any of his superiors found out about it, would probably be
FIRED never mind getting promoted - because you can't be GIVING things
away - right? That kid would be toast if his boss found out about it, and the
other kid who refused to give the guy a burger would actually be much more
likely to get promoted because he held the company line.
Hmmm.....
It occurs to me that it may seem odd to some of you that I just happen to overhear all these things - but I assure you these conversations and things I see are real - most of these occurrences are in the neighborhood where I work, which is rife with homelessness among other things - it really is one of several parts of town that would qualify as Homeless Central.
There is a little building down there that is for lease -
Hmmmmm...............................................................
A comment I overheard from a homeless woman to a homeless friend of hers regarding the bag he was using to carry his stuff in -
"Oh Yeah, that suitcase is GREAT - it makes you look more like a travelling person and less like a HOMELESS person"
So I'm on the bus again, getting off at the stop nearest my workplace, and I see a homeless guy sleeping on the bench in the bus stop enclosure, and next to him is, presumably,
his wheelchair, which, on the front of the back has the handwritten words
"God Bless The USA - Give me a place to live and I'd be happy"
Hmmm...if that isn't a cry for help I don't know what is.
Why is this man standing chest-high in a dumpster? Hmmm.....
A few observations...
So I'm sitting on the bus one morning on the way to work, and this woman gets on the bus, followed closely by this guy, who is obviously homeless/distraught/troubled, and he's yelling at her at the top of his lungs - something about "You think you can walk behind a man and say things like that about him?" and "Who are YOU? Who are YOU? Who are YOU to talk to me like that? You don't respect me?" A few expletives(use your imagination) and he's standing about two feet in front of her SCREAMING at her - and at first I thought "I better intercede here before this gets violent" but then I looked at the guy - really looked at the guy, at his face, at his eyes, and I didn't really feel he was a danger to anybody, so I let it play out.
So then he sees another woman on the bus - " I KNOW YOU I KNOW YOU" - (as it turns out, he didn't) - and she plays along with it - and the guy hugs her and then starts BAWLING - he's going on about how "I just want people to know God is HERE - I just want them to KNOW - people don't KNOW - they don't KNOW"- and he's just crying and crying and he just totally lost it - and then he got off the bus peacefully without further incident.
Now I have no religious leanings one way or the other - that's not why I'm relating this story. I guess what I took from that is that the guy is just BROKEN. He's BROKEN. For whatever reason, his SOUL is just BROKEN. And HE'S NOT BEYOND FIXING!!!!! Or at least patching up. I really believe that. So let's do it.
Peace to all
NCS
1-28-09 Detroit homeless man found frozen
On Wednesday, the Detroit News reported that the body of what was likely a homeless man was found frozen in a solid block of ice, with only its lower legs exposed, in the elevator shaft of an abandoned warehouse in Detroit. The warehouse is home to many homeless people. In a searing indictment of social conditions in Detroit, a city whose name was once synonymous with American industrial might, the body was left for two days, even after being reported. Neither police operators nor the 911 emergency service followed up on repeated requests from a Detroit News reporter that the body be removed from the ice. According to the homeless inhabitants of the warehouse, the body had been there for weeks.
BOSTON - A homeless man sleeping in a park was attacked early Sunday by two men who kicked him in the stomach and then set him on fire, police said.
No arrests were made and police gave no indication of what might have motivated the attack. The 30-year-old homeless man, whose name was not released, told police he was awakened by the men kicking him in Langone Park in the city's North End. He drifted back to sleep after the assault, but the men returned, drenched him with a flammable liquid and set his legs on fire, police said. A 911 caller reported flames in the park, and firefighters found the man wrapped in a blanket after he had ripped off some of his burning clothes. "He was shivering and was partially dressed," said police spokesman John Boyle.
The park is a short walk from a cluster of downtown bars. The victim was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital for burns to his legs. Nationally, the number of assaults against the homeless has risen dramatically since 2002, according to a recent report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. In 2005, 73 homeless people were assaulted nationwide and 13 died, the report said. Last August, a 40-year-old homeless man died in Boston after he was beaten.
Two teenagers have been charged with manslaughter. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
a homeless man was beaten to death the same night a surveillance camera captured two people assaulting a homeless man with a baseball bat. A third homeless man was bludgeoned nearby with a golf club. Three teenagers have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder.
Homeless man set on fire in Boston - March 5th, 2006
I was living in this neighborhood at that time - I SOOOO wish I could have come walking along at that moment - people are sick.
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Just a comment on that one - I like Obama, but while I believe the intentions were good, if we can shove the homeless out of the way for what is essentially a party while still providing for them, why can't we do it on a regular basis with their long-term well being in mind? Hmmm...
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm...
In The Commonwealth Of Massachusetts, there is no such thing.