Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Excuse me, do you have a spare one dollar?



This morning on the way to work, i was on the train and a guy was going around with some coins and saying, 'excuse me, do you have a spare one dollar' to almost every person he saw. (He didn't come to me, probably 'cos i had headphones in, but he was loud enough so i could hear him). 

Anyway, as i was looking around the carriage, not one person gave him any money, and some didn't even acknowledge him at all!! 

Now i live in an area populated by a lot of homeless people, and my old house was right next door to a homeless drop in centre, so loads of people like this: 


But this guy on the train this morning was not like that. He seemed better dressed then that, and he didn't have that usual homeless person smell. 

But i noticed several people give each other that look like he was nothing more then nothing, and he didn't even deserve to be near them. 

It got me thinking. In this time, when the Economic Issues ares the biggest news story, (as long as there isn't another sports sex scandal, if you are in Australia), it could have be those people looking at each other who are next weeks beggars. (I know probably exaggeration, but still!!)

I get that people may not like to give money to 'homeless' people and they may not even have the money to spare, i get all that. What i dont get is, the holier then thou looks that people give homeless people. 

I admit, i dont give money to every homeless person i pass ( i couldn't otherwise i would end up next to them.), and i admit some of the ones out near me probably have drug/alcohol issues, but this guy just seemed different to that. 

Maybe i am just used to the worser *is that even a word??* type of homeless people, but i dont know. It just made me sad for the world, that someone can just be ignored, just cause they are different. 

  • Homelessness is the condition and social category of people who lack housing, because they cannot afford (pay for), or are otherwise unable (or uninterested) to maintain, regular, safe, and adequate shelter.
  • The term homelessness may also include people whose primary nighttime residence is in a homeless shelter, in an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
  • An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A homeless guy totally called me out on moving away from him and towards the other end of my friends. I will normally give homeless men and women change or money when I have it because I totally believe that some people just hit a tough road block in life, and everyone deserves a break..However, I did NOT move away from him because he was homeless. I moved away from him because I had a 2k camera dangling from my neck and he was boozy and asked for 1 so he could get on the train, when his hand held five dollars! I would have moved away even if he looked like a rich frat brother. Anyways though, I feel as though after a while, people feel like ignoring these people on the streets is the easiest thing for them to do. I admit, sometimes I just ignore them but I always feel bad about it because I know it was a reversed situation, I would feel awful if people stopped looking at me like a human being.

Red said...

I fully admit there are some that I will ignore, (mostly cause they are scary), but I just couldn't believe it on the train...

It really shocked me.