Creeksong

I recall a trip to a DD (nat'l chain famous for their donuts)..... There was a poor soul outside the place -- in an upper middle class area -- begging ... Not for money, but for someone to buy him something to eat. So I asked him to come in with me and told the guy behind the counter to fill his order.... The guy behind the counter tells me, "we don't serve his kind here".... To which I replied, "you do realize you're working for minimum wage... you're probably one paycheck, maybe less, away from being this man.... how can you in good conscience refuse to feed him?" And the response you get only in uppity place: "we don't want it to become a habit for his kind to stand around outside our doors & make our customers uncomfortable" .... The poor man, having been spoken of as if he was somehow less than human, just about shed tears as he did the only thing he thought he could.... turned toward the door and started walking. This is the reality of hunger.... In one of the richest countries in the world..... We can't get a person to feel compassion for someone reduced to begging for food even when looking the unfortunate soul right in the eyes.... That says more about the people who can just turn away than about those in need..... There are far worse ways to be poor than just having an empty stomach.

Incidentally, I walked out of that DD and have never set foot in it again.... And I offered to take the poor guy to a fast food restaurant where the person behind the counter not only took his order, but did so without charge, using her own food allowance for that day to feed this man she didn't know. Interestingly enough, this restaurant is/was in a far less well-off part of the city..... Isn't it interesting how those who have less to give are far more generous with what they have than those who could afford to feed thousands just on what they spend to replace a sink in their home...

By the by.... The unfortunate soul was a war veteran.... Lost everything because he came back with severe, debilitating PTSD and was unable to function.