"I am a human being"

[Maraya1969]

People are trying to locate this man. Please watch.

http://wishadoo.blogspot.com/2013/04/im-human-being.html Dena may have already posted this but if not I'm posting it.

Fixed.

[snappyturtle]

1. Link didn't work for me. nt

[nessa]

2. Get rid of the period (.) at the end. Link inside.

http://wishadoo.blogspot.com/2013/04/im-human-being.html

[snappyturtle]

5. Thank you. nt

[freshwest]

4. Here's the video. Brought tears to my eye. Wish I was there to help:

This could happen to anyone. The video has had over two million views. If each one of those was worth a dollar, he'd have been off the streets a long time ago. It says on the video description that his story was the inspiration for something...

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. watched it the other day

People have been going to that area looking for him to give him help

[Honeycombe8]

6. Very sad. Wish I could help. But what they never show in these things...

is how that person got in the bind he's in. There was a time when he was young and healthy. Did he have a job? Did he quit his job and get into drugs? Is he an alcoholic? How did he get to be where he is? He made choices that landed him where he is. Choices that most others don't make. So in one sense, we all reap in our older years that which we've sown in our younger years.

One of my sisters ended up destitute and almost homeless (except we saved her from homelessness). How she ended up that way is...while the rest of us went to work every day, busting our butts, working while we didn't feel well, hot weather, cold weather, day after day, year after year....she didn't. She worked at a few jobs here and there, but would quit or get fired. She hated authority and taking orders. She was too good for that (narcissistic personality or whatever). She got my mother to pay for her dental work (I paid for my own, out of my paltry povery-level income), buy her a little house (which my sister let run into the ground so the town condemned it), pay for her medical care. My sis ended up living with mom, going to college off and on for years, and got a degree. Then still didn't get a job. She just sat around smoking, eating, watching tv.

Then mom passed away. The gravy train had ended. My sister thought my mother would leave the house to her, I'm sure. But she didn't.

So my sis took her share of mom's estate,moved out into a cheap apt. And STILL didn't get a job. She just hung around and visited and smoked and ate and watched tv for 2 years until the $ ran out. Then when she was facing eviction, she started calling relatives for help. The relatives who had all busted their butts for years paying their own way and struggling, while she sat around being supported by our mother.

We helped her out. But for us, she would've become homeless. But that's not the story SHE would tell you. Her version is that she worked for years, then got sick. She really did get sick. All those years of sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and eating (she was obese) took their tole. She had a massive stroke at a young age and ended up in a nursing home. She will die there.

But there was a time early on, when she had it all. A high IQ, a college degree with good grades, financial assistance from Mom. She just didn't want to work. But NOW she does, now that she can't. Ironic.

[Maraya1969]

7. Just be careful you don't automatically judge everyone by your sister. This man could have worked

very hard on a poverty level wage and gotten into trouble with a mortgage. Or he could have a mental illness, (You sister sounds like she had depression. With proper treatment maybe she wouldn't have been so, "lazy".

So many people are just a couple of pay checks away from homelessness. If you work for $8/hour or $320/week how much money are you going to have left after you pay your rent if you have a wife and kid and have to pay $1,000/month for your apartment? I'll tell you, you'll have $280 left. Add in an unexpected medical bill and you are shot.

I think most people want to work and be productive. Our society is set against the ones who don't have the right degrees.

[Honeycombe8]

9. This is true. I was just pointing out that the video didn't give the whole story.

It seems I see or read something that's either totally negative, focusing on how people screw up their lives and deserve what they get, or totally emotional, focusing only on the results of a lifetime of choices. When the whole story is really both. To show the whole story could serve a valuable lesson for young people, too.

How a person got that way, though, doesn't mean a person shouldn't be helped in the end. As I said, we helped our sister. Well, not all of us. Some refused. But thank goodness for Medicaid, or I guess she would've died.

[OneGrassRoot]

10. That's why I made that point that we rarely know another's story...

and our knee-jerk way of responding to and judging others (out of our own fear, imho), is as destructive as the system which perpetuates all of the misery.

[Honeycombe8]

12. So true. People have gotten so hard hearted.

I don't think I have...I've always been a bit fact-driven, even as a child. But taht's not to say that people shouldn't be helped, no matter how they got into the fix they're in. We ARE supposed to live in a civilized society.

[HiPointDem]

8. The fact is that regardless of the choices people make, 1/3 of the US population is at the

poverty level or just above it, and millions are unemployed.

No matter how well people 'choose,' they can't *all* choose their way out of that basic economic frame.

not everyone is your sister, not every family is your family. there are other minds in the world besides yours.

[OneGrassRoot]

11. I can't believe anyone reads my blog...lol

I did create an OP here about this topic, though. Thanks so much, Maraya1969.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022769630


This is an old post which addresses the lack of empathy and knee-jerk judgments so many make without knowing another's story. I find the judgment of others to be as destructive as the inhumane systems driving the suffering.






http://www.wishadoo.org/blog/81/what-if/




WHAT IF?

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Martin Luther King, Jr.


WHAT IF you're someone who disagrees with governmental social safety nets and instead believes only "charity" should help those in need; are you confident the majority (and there are MANY in the US and around the world in dire need today) would be helped by Good Samaritans in an unconditional way, or only those deemed worthy?

What if you consider yourself a kind, compassionate person inclined to be "charitable"; when you see someone asking for help -- in the form of panhandling, for example -- are you likely to assess that person before helping, to judge if they are deserving of your assistance? If they don't "look" a certain way or answer your questions a certain way, a way you're most comfortable with, are you likely to help?

What if you prefer to instead instruct and impart wisdom, so that people can help themselves rather than provide assistance directly, yet no one seems as though they could benefit from your wisdom (maybe they're too young, too old, too infirm, too something)?

What if you judge others to be something they aren't, and you pass them by, but they would have indeed been worthy of your help, by your estimation, yet you didn't give them a chance?

What if you may not be the best judge of what others need? After all, we each have our own opinions and perceptions based on our individual life experiences.

What if one day you have no one to help you when you most desperately need it because life has taken a turn never anticipated? And what if you're in the exact same position one day -- at the mercy of strangers -- and others judge you as something you're not?

What if you're no longer here but loved ones have fallen on hard times and are at the mercy of strangers, and they're judged to be something they're not, so they are left to struggle, and perhaps die, alone?

What if there are so many in need that they outnumber Good Samaritans, because not everyone will act as an unconditionally compassionate Good Samaritan? What if we decided to work together as a compassionate, productive community, creating a society that doesn't reward greedy, selfish behavior but instead works to create systems and institutions which truly reflect something beneficial for the masses?

What if we made choices that led our descendents to view us as kind, benevolent, wise stewards of the environment and one another...guardians of the future?

What if we were able to embrace phrases like "The Common Good" and "The Greater Good" as something admirable to work toward, rather than a reflection of weakness and some elusive "ism" that others have said are bad?

What if we at least talk about it, with an open mind and open heart? What if you try to believe this is possible, in our lifetime? That's a choice that is within your power to make and act upon.