I just met a homeless person and his 6 year old tonight

[TwixVoy]

I went out really quickly to get a sandwhich at Subway. The Subway is in one of those long strip centers. A year ago there were several businesses in the strip center. The only one left still in business is the Subway.

Anyway a homeless person and his 6 year old were outside asking if anyone could get them a sandwhich. I got them both a meal.

I went to get gas afterwards at the end of the block near where a major freeway intersects the road. (it is about 9PM at night right now) On the way out of the gas station I saw them walking to the overpass where several homeless people had set up camp. I wished there was something more I could do for them.

But it makes me think... We are supposedly in this "recovery", yet I have lived in this part of town for over 20 years.... NEVER have I seen so many businesses gone and never have I seen so many homeless here. And we are supposedly in one of the states that got hit the least. It makes me wonder where we will be at this time next year.

[deaniac21]

1. WE have mile long soup kitchen lines in Little Rock.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

2. So you really couldn't spare $500?

That could set them up in a cheap motel for 2-3 weeks. You could put it on your credit card and pay it off slowly. A 6-year-old kid is serious business.

[TwixVoy]

3. No, I could not

I have been unemployed for the past several months and just now was lucky enough to find a job paying about $10/hour that won't even let me start working until next month. I had about $30 and some change. I am not a high roller that walks around with several hundred dollars on me or has credit cards with tons of credit available.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

6. I'm so very sorry.

Your giving to them when you have no job is more than I have ever done. My reply wasn't meant to be snarky. You stated that you wished you could do more. I was trying to suggest a way to do more, which is obviously
impossible in your situation.

Please forgive the apparent rudeness of my previous post. I did not intend it as such. I was simply answering what more you could have done. For my penance I shall leave up my original response and allow everyone to call me an ass.

Please accept my apology.

[TwixVoy]

9. No offense taken

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

10. Offense should be taken.

You are very kind.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. I was gonna hammer you,

and now I'm glad I didn't.

Your exchange with Twix Voy is exactly how things should always be handled here when different messages are being sent forth.

Assumptions - never a good idea.

But good on you for taking responsibility.

Kudos to both of you. I've just fallen in love, a little bit, with two sparkling beings.........................

[create.peace]

5. uncalled for....nt

[create.peace]

17. so now i look the baddy

so now i look the baddy for calling on someone for a tactless and now apologized for comment. i wouldn't have said it except for it is an assumption that we all have credit cards, or cash lying around to make it all better. the OP was very generous, and so many times it is the one who is close to being in the same situation who does give what they have. when i visit my children in portland, i always buy apples or oranges and cliff bars, to give to the guys on the street. many are viet nam vets. being amazed that someone cannot afford 500 bucks, or 100, or 25, is not realizing the situation so many are in. the response was heartfelt and all is okay now, but i just wanted to say that my reaction was to the possible hurt to the op, who had done a good thing.

[democrank]

4. Bless you, Twix.

I`ve been homeless twice in my life so I know what you did tonight meant a lot. Bless you for that simple kindness. I wish I could hug that little child.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. A six year old child, on a summer night,

with no place to go. Nothing to eat.

Bless you for getting them food. Thank you. I would give you the money for that, if I could.

Have you seen the tent cities that are now accepted parts of our landscape?

I live in a place that is almost isolated in its removal from things like the homeless. Our little town has a great social services program for seniors and the poor and a lot of our budget goes towards taking care of the people less fortunate, so we don't see tent cities or homeless on our streets. They're being taken care of.

But our little town is a rare place, I know. Just across the river, in the nation's capitol, they have opened "Cooling Areas" for the homeless who are at risk in this beastly heat wave. They try in DC, they really do, but there's never enough money, and now, more than ever, the homeless are in greater numbers.

I am old, and have lived here long enough to remember exactly when it all changed, when Reagan threw the mentally ill out of their safe hospitals and sent them tumbling, helpless, into the streets. He didn't care - none of them cared, and then, suddenly, all around the White House, there were these lost souls, wandering, mumbling, sitting and staring, sometimes screaming. All because of what the Reagan administration did.

Now, it's not just the lost, but the poor, the disenfranchised, the unemployed, the foreclosed, the hungry, the children.

We never used to see children. Now, it's considered normal. A friend of mine, a teacher in a middle school, told me that probably one-third of her students are homeless, living in shelters or in cars. When they're asked to fill out forms with addresses, they don't know what to do.

Our America. What is happening here? Who is doing anything to help these people? You bought two people some food, and I bless you for that, Twix Voy, but who will feed them tomorrow? What will they do?

I don't know what to do. We write checks to local organizations that do the good works, but, somehow, it doesn't seem adequate................................

[rosesaylavee]

8. I live in a wealthy town just west of Chicago...

The kind of town that people drive thru and say 'ahhh, how sweet, how quaint, wished we lived here, yadadadada.' We have had homeless for at least 10 years. 8 years ago a woman in the town north of us decided to do something about it and started a shelter. But I used to startle homeless people in the forest preserves by our river when I was out walking early in the morning. I see them... I see people who are wearing ALL their clothes and a back pack and look like they are just slightly dirty.... I see them but I ask my neighbors and work mates and they don't notice them. We are all waking up to the idea that it can happen 'just like that' to any one of us.

I know you didn't post this to get thanks... but thank you for feeding them. You are good people.

[Lyric]

12. Thank you so much from someone

who was once pregnant and homeless.

*hugs*

[imdjh]

13. That was a nice thing to do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. OMG

:cry:

Thank you for helping them.

[Booster]

15. You've got a good heart, TwixVoy. That's never a bad thing.

You gave to someone who had nothing when you had very little.:loveya:

[HillbillyBob]

16. Bless you TwixVoy, As i wrote in answer to the

'How do you know if someone is really a Christian'question.
My Grandma passed a few years ago, I always thought of her as Christian.
She never overtly prayed in public or was 'pious' in a public way.
When she was in her final illness (multiple myeloma of the spine) strangers came to her room and told of how when they were in need she would show up with full home cooked meals for holidays, non holidays, or clothes for the kids for folks who were out of work or down on their luck, she never said a word about it to me or other family members. She did not wealthy, she was a diner waitress for all her working life.
I was kind of taken aback by the line of folks that were there that I had never met or even heard of. Though it wasn't out of line with how I thought of her.
Her last words were for my partner, that she wished he could have been there. I thought the rest of my publicly christian family were going to have a stroke..I m gay in an evangelical family.
I too have been homeless a few times once for almost 2 years, sick and out of work, if not for folks that let me use a shower or couch there were not many services for folks who had AIDs in the late 80s early 90s. Thanks RunnyRaygun. I don't consider myself a Christian , though I do live by the Golden Rule (not the R one, where he who can steal others gold makes the rules. I have helped where I could.
We lost our jobs in FtLauderdale and ended up after a few moves in a small town in NC.
Think Abandoned house in a place like a cross between Mayberry and Green Acres. When we first came to NC out of work and limited savings as in almost 0$, if it were not for Second Harvest Food bank we would have starved, no joke, no exaggeration.
Any one who can donate to Second Harvest I hope you will. We are still so hand to mouth we don't have anything left over. We were hoping that our garden would do well enough that we could take fresh things to them, too dry again this year.
The local news out of Winston Salem showed their empty shelves a few weeks ago and did some fundraising, but they are still strapped. We also rescue abused dogs.

[classysassy]

18. Land of plenty

money for foreign wars,money for wall street,new jets for our congress critters,zilch for the homeless,what kind of country are we living in?