Posted on 04/04/2014 12:51:32 PM PDT by Kartographer
A simple, generous act of kindness can be so life changing especially when it means the difference between kids going hungry or having full bellies. A poignant blog post written by a mother of five made a beautifully honest illustration of that recently.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
press charges? what charges?
I didn’t ask. The cop said he could arrest her if I wanted to press charges.
Ditto.
Give a man a fish.....
Rush has changed too. Years ago, he would often talk about people down on their luck and about all his failures before he gained fame and fortune. Today I heard him excoriate people who have been on Unemployment for “4 years.” 4 years? I hadn’t heard that. My husband, who has worked since 1968 got laid off and was on Unemployment for less than a year and is now cut off. We are struggling. He’s been paying into that for almost 50 years and this is his first time taking that benefit. Typically, with our luck, he was collecting it from a different state from where we live and the benefit was much lower, lol! As Don Rumfeld said, stuff happens.
And to all those who would rank on us: I’m working now and he’s busily looking.
"I wept because I had no shoes - until I met a man who had no feet" - old Persian Sufi.
She has the manners to say thank you.
That’s a good and uncommon thing.
This callow youth of 18 was in the U.S. Navy in 1951. On maneuvers, we hit Port au Prince. I had mess cook duty that week and part of my duties was to unload the ships garbage to a bum boat that came by three times a day after mess. By garbage, I mean the clean stuff that was scraped off a plate and dumped.
I was raising up a canister after the bum boat crew had emptied it when a shipmate said, "Jeez Al, look at that." For lunch that day we had had fried chicken, with ice cream for dessert (the kind that came in paper-wrapped slabs). I looked down and saw one guy grabbing the chicken bones and chowing down on the leftovers, while the other guy was licking the ice cream wrappers.
MAJOR EPIPHANY. I thought I had seen poor people in the slums of NYC where I grew up, but that poverty was NOTHING compared to this.
I was in the old diesel boat submarine service, and our electricians got a monthly dungaree allowance because the battery acid ate so many holes in their clothes. Near the end of the month there was barely anything left between the waistbelt and the cuffs. EPIPHANY II came when these electricians were trading those rags to people on the docks for handmade mahogany cigar boxes, etc. It was the first time I had seen people who tied rags to themselves with string and it brought to mind pictures of pre-revolution Russian peasants that I had seen in school.
I damn near kissed the ground when we got back to the States.
Consider that even back in 1951, before Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes, that Haiti was probably much more prosperous than it is today.
Used to be a big scam in all the Chicago downtown train stations. Nicely dressed man or woman asking for help buying a train ticket to get home. Surprisingly one day they would be in front of Union Station, the next in front of the Northwestern, etc rinse wash repeat. Two weeks later at a different time, there they would be again.
Bingo.
Reading this post did something for me.
Thank you, all of you, for your various inputs.
wonderful story and nothing wrong with paying it forward but, did you notice what she bought....Sargento Cheese, Altloids, GoGurt, Juicy Juice while the rest of us struggle with generics. That’s part of the gimme attitude “I want a Coach purse” “Everyone else has an Iphone” “Minimum wage should be $10.00” How will they ever learn if there is no sacrifice?
You hit on a very good point here. I'm as disinterested (maybe disconnected is a better word) as anyone when it comes to stories about people facing hardships, but when interacting with someone directly like this I am generous to a fault. I don't know why the original poster would assume that so many Freepers would instinctively expect anyone to think of this family as a group of "deadbeats."
If anything, this story focuses on the whole discussion about the true nature of charity, and makes any notion of "deadbeats" completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter if anyone in this story was a deadbeat, or wasn't truly in need. The stranger gave generously of herself, and doesn't have to answer to anyone else about it.
She was very grateful, she took the ticket, and she got on the bus. That was easy! LOL.
My wife works at a supermarket. People cover for other people ALL THE TIME. Yes, there are EBT scammers and shoplifters. But she says the good people far outnumber the bad. I have to admit, I was very surprised.
How Would You Treat a Homeless Man?
The clip is a series of staged incidents involving a "homeless man," a "heartless bartender," and hidden cameras that record people as they witness what unfolds between the two guys. The reactions of people are fascinating here.
The one that began around the 4:00 mark surprised the heck out of me.
Bump
Thank you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.