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The freezing man standing outside on Valentine's Day
By adamg on Tue, 02/16/2016 - 9:52am
Micah Risk recounts:
After dinner with a friend, I passed an older man panhandling outside of a Walgreens. He was bald, had no hat, no gloves. The temperature feels like -5F, and he is shaking, obviously freezing. I run inside to find gloves and a hat. They have nothing, so I come out and give him a ten. I had just purchased a new purse and a Calvin Klein crop top from urban outfitters. The irony kills me. I can not face this freezing man and walk away like he isn't "my problem." So I run around the neighborhood to find warm clothes and everything's closed. Eventually I find an open store with cold weather gear. I come back and put the hat on his head, making sure to cover his frozen ears ...
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Comments
Thank you!
What a lovely way to commemorate Valentine's Day! Thank you for helping this man out and also for the reminder to the rest of us to do the same.
Full quote
To answer some of the naysayers, here's her full post. Of special note to me is that she also called the emergency shelter number to have someone look in on him. And her first sentence says it all.
There ARE still good citizens out there
Your parents raised a good person.
DERR
they raised a naive person, thats for sure. I'd bet my life he warmed up with that tenner inside a liquor store waiting to buy a few pints of Cossack. Pan handlers won't go away until society as a whole stops giving them money. They sure as hell aren't doing anything productive with it. And in fact many times a panhandler you give your money to actually rakes in more money in a year than you do...TAX FREE.
Your parents raised an
Your parents raised an asshole.
sure did
if by raised you mean "dropped off at the orphanage"
#sorrynotsorry
been more than a decade since i've dropped a penny into some beggar's cup. Whistling dixie about it.
If that's true, I'm sorry
But there is no moral/ethical/religious belief that justifies leaving a poor man in the cold to fend for himself. I remember years ago hearing a preacher say "Jesus didn't say 'judge the poor'--he said 'help the poor.'" Pretty simple.
Yes and no
It's entirely possible he used that cash for something other than clothing or food. Should the person not feel bad and try to help him regardless? That's not for you to say. I wouldn't give him cash myself but I'd like to think I'd at least try to purchase clothing for him.
It's unlikely he makes more money then you do. If you make below the poverty line you're taxes are nearly 0% anyway. (Or in your words "TAX FREE".) But more to the point, if you think he's better off why haven't you joined him?
I would whole-heartedly agree
to giving someone like that the clothes, or a sandwich. JUST DON'T GIVE THEM MONEY. You are being taken. It's not against the law either if you give someone cash willingly, no law has been broken. These people are SCAM ARTISTS.
I don't live on the poverty line but I'm not that far off, and Income tax gets taken right out of my check, even when I WAS making poverty wage, and at the end of the year you do not get 100% of that payroll tax back, so I don't know what tax-free dream world you speak of.
I never said he was better off, I said he likely makes more money, which is true, but a hard alcohol/drug habit and throwing money away on scratch tickets and take out food all day every day is not my idea of "living" either. I prefer having a warm house to hang out in instead of freezing my ass off and begging for change. People on the street that want to help themselves have avenues to do so, it just takes time and patience and EFFORT, which is something almost all of them lack.
As an aside my favorite bum in Boston history was a lady we all called Auntie Genine. She stalked the commons, and her story was that she had a wealthy father (like blue blood wealthy) who gave her a place to stay and a very small allowance because she had a raging substance abuse problem. So she hung out in the common with her nails did and a nice clean clothes and begged for money and cigs, the money went straight to the liquor store/dealer man. At night she went home to her mansion. Never saw her in the cold either. Idiots who lived below her standard of living dropped money in her cup all day.
"She stalked the commons"
"She stalked the commons"
Not sure if you mean the Common, or the commoners..
ain't it great
to use one story to paint yer whole world.
I remember Reagan did this with the welfare mother who owned a cadillac...except the person didn't really exist did she. I know, I know, it's art and creative to make up stories. I love a good story. But let's keep fact and fiction distinct, shall we? yes there are poor folks who game the system; yes, there are wealthy folks who strip it blind...marco,what's yer point again? I'm lost.
What would Supply Side Jesus Do?
I like Supply Side Jesus
Much better than that hippie-touchie-feelie-all-is-forgiven-because-you're-a-special-snowflake Jesus.
*ducks behind 5/8 steel plate*
Put up or shut up
Show me anyone who actually advocates a policy that could be described in such terms by anyone who's not running a high fever or on drugs. Provide citations. Otherwise you're a blowhard liar just like your boy Trump.
Right after
you show me anyone on the right who advocates starving the destitute.
Or, you know, when you learn how to take sarcasm instead of just being able to dish it out.
Incidentally, Trump's always been one of your boys. Bullshit aside, he's running dead left of everyone else on our side.
He wasn't panhandling.
Here a helpful tip if you think your cold, hard cash might be spent in a liquor store. Carry Dunkin' Donuts gift cards with you and give them to panhandlers. $5 is a good amount per card. It's enough for a hot cup of coffee and a bit of food.
In Philly the buses and subways still use metal tokens
When the tokes used to cost about 1.50, every once in a while while strolling down the street, you'd be approached by an illustrious denizen of that fine city, offering, in his words, the following, more than equitable, exchange:
"Tokenforadollar?! Tokenforadollar?!"
Anything that's worth money can be turned into booze, drugs, and lotto tickets.
First and foremost, glad he
First and foremost, glad he did this for the man. But that entire post, beyond just the excerpt here, toes the fine line between doing a good deed and humblebragging about it.
Hi Fitz,
Hi Fitz,
I'll be honest-- I hesitated to post that story because I didn't want it to come off that way. I'm aware of how these stories can be perceived, and it's not my intent to brag about it. That's why I included that sentence about what I had just been doing-- I just bought some frivolous crap at a store and had dinner with a friend. Then I jumped in my warm car to drive around the city to find clothes for him. I am realistic about keeping myself and my gesture in perspective. It was a simple gesture that, in reality, did not take a huge chunk of resources. My point was, even if we are out living our lives, we still have the ability to stop for a moment and humanize these situations with some relatively simple gestures.
I shared this on my facebook because I was very touched by my interaction and the circumstances of the evening. I watched a city walk by this human who was shaking uncontrollably in the extreme cold without minimal proper coverage. It was a pretty emotionally layered paradox (extreme suffering on V day) that had a big effect on me. I didn't realize the post would get this kind of attention. I hope you can relate to my intent a bit and trust that I posted it without any ego involved.
Respect to you for your
Respect to you for your response. Thank you.
If you don't know Micah …
… you might read it that way. Of course, when I saw this on her FB page (hi, Micah) it didn't seem like a humblebrag at all, but more of a "this is what I saw today and what I did about it and we should all be thankful for what we have and help those who don't." If you ever get a chance to meet her, do so, she's pretty awesome.
What ever happened to adults
What ever happened to adults taking care of themselves?
The man was cold as a consequence of poor life choices.
A sad fact of life is that you can't save everyone from themselves.
I suppose you go to church
I suppose you go to church every weekend, too.
Nope atheist.
Nope atheist.
If they would rather die ...
"They had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Thanks for the input, Mr. Scrooge.
Yes, this man may have made poor decisions in his life to wind up alone and shivering on a frozen Boston street in the middle of winter.
So what? Are you that dead inside, that removed from the least, last shred of decency and kindness that you cannot fathom how somebody might see that man like that and want to do something to lessen his suffering? How many flies, exactly, have you ripped the wings off?
Give a man a fish and you
If a man having been taught to fish refuses to feed himself well shame on him.
Thank you again, Mr Hobbes
Yes, life is brutish and short and damn anybody who has a moment of sympathy for another person.
You are presuppossing (following your strange example)
that 1) he has indeed been taught to fish and 2) for whatever reason, still refuses to feed himself. Also, to fish you need supplies, my friend.
Whatever happened to adults
Whatever happened to adults having the courage to stand up to their convictions and not be a tough-guy Internet anon?
You clearly made wise life decisions, so come on, reveal yourself.
Give us your name
If we find you unconscious or writhing in pain or a having a seizure after collapsing from a health issue, we want to be sure that we honor your wishes and not interfere.
Do you know this man personally?
I have severe mental illnesses - bipolar disorder along with debilitating anxiety and panic that kept me agoraphobic for several years.
I was had no idea until I was in my 30s. Not coincidentally, I gave up drinking and drugs when I was 28. The substances were medicating me enough that I lived a semi-normal life.
I went through most of my 30s as being diagnosed with depression. When someone with bipolar disorder takes anti-depressants, it makes them sicker emotionally, physically and mentally. Some of the medications made me depressed. Some made me hypomanic. Most made me physically ill. I went through that for eight years until I got the right diagnosis and treatment.
If I didn't have such a strong support system, I could be one of those people you see freezing on the street.
It was not my choice to have a brain like this. It was not my choice to be so ill that I couldn't see that the treatment was worse than the illness.
I'm not telling this story to have a pity party. These days I have a better life than most people no matter what the state of their health is.
My ask to you is this: unless you have had a time in your life when things have been so bad that you have no idea what to do or where to go, put a cork in it.
Two percent owl?
Two percent owl?
First rule, Elle
First rule
Spot-on, anon.
Speaking for myself, every choice I have ever made in my entire life has been completely spot-on from start to finish. I'm pretty typical of most people, really, which is why we're all accountants or engineers or partners at the firm.
Indeed!
That "born to wealthy family" choice was the best, along with the "born to supportive family" choice. It enabled me to avoid the "deep debt" choice that came with the college choice, and avoid the "enlist in military to pay bills and maybe get an education" choice all together!
Hooray for such good choices (pats self on back).
Poor life choices
And you, of course, have never made a poor life choice. No, never.
The truth is that we all make some poor life choices. Some people never seem to learn not to, but the big difference isn't in the choices we make, it's in the consequences. A white suburban teenager from an affluent family can have a couple of beers and wreck the family car on the decorative pavilion on the town green, and nothing much will come of it. Money, lawyers, resources and connections will see to that. A kid with fewer resources will face harsher consequences. And if you have fewer resources, even a fine can turn into jail time, if you can't pay it or your court fees. Same mistake...different consequences. Now imagine a life of this. Imagine the same human being, with the same propensity to make mistakes and the same ability to learn, but whose mistakes have harsher consequences and are harder to recover from. Imagine this person without a safety net of stable, well-off, well-connected friends and family.
It may be the reason in some cases, but in truth, "poor life choices" is just as simplistic as any other explanation. Try to look a little deeper next time.
wow! I am always amazed at the cliches people come up with...
these days, you don't know a thing about this guy so don't pretend; and please spare me the libertarian sanctimony about the "sad facts" because "poor life choices" often have little to do with circumstances.
golllly.
Hmm
And you've never made a stupid mistake in your whole life? Or a string of them?
Then either you haven't lived or you may be about to make up for lost time, Because you made a very poor choice when you posted that brutish comment.
Stupid dust in my office, making my eyes leaky
Micah,
You are a special person indeed. You could have walked past him and not acknowledged his presence but you chose to treat him with dignity and respect. He doesn't just have a hat. He knows that someone out there cares for him.
Great deed
Where can I meet girls like this?!?!
Urban Outfitters
You never know when or where you'll meet that special someone.
I couldn't help but laugh at
I couldn't help but laugh at this. Mostly because I have some real ideological conflict about going there. Like I said above, that detail was mentioned to keep the story rooted in reality. I am the first to point the finger at my own hypocrisy and the first to say that I could be more proactive about causing less harm and doing more good.
That's very cool...
No pun intended. Aren't there warming centers for homeless people for times like that?
Yes, there are! I included
Yes, there are! I included the emergency shelter number in that post. The man had been out there for a long time and the shelter can take quite a bit of time to pick everyone up (as they explained to me, it was a busy night). I had talked with the man before I ran around looking for gear and explained to him that he could call a shelter or 911 for help. He was disoriented (understandably) and just kept saying he wanted to get home (Pittsburgh, apparently). It was clear he wasn't able to do this for himself.
Yes, there are...
... When it's really cold, the city and some nonprofits send out people to find the homeless and bring them to a warm facility. But they can't always find everyone out there and some won't go to the facility.
A suggestion for the future, should anyone run into a homeless person on a freezing night, call the police (911 or the local precinct if you have the number on your cell) or City Hall's hotline (311) . They would know the agency to contact who would send someone out to get the person.
Please don't feed the Trolls
They're just making themselves feel better by accusing others of making poor life choices and getting a reaction out of the rest of us. I'm sure they're aware of what selfish jerks they are, they don't need the reinforcement!
Thank you to the OP for the kind gesture to another human being in need.
I heard that some shelters
I heard that some shelters were turning people away on Saturday and Sunday nights, for lack of beds. Pretty awful.
Oooh boy!
It's dreadful!
Engaging with homeless folks
Engaging with homeless folks in a productive, kind way is extremely challenging. The folks at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program do a great job. If you want to help but are not comfortable engaging directly with people on the street, mail BHCHP a check. They'll stretch the dollars and use them to effectively engage with folks who struggle with addiction, mental illness and homelessness.
Compassion
No act of kindness, no matter how small....is.ever.wasted.
May not be wasted...
... but it is a sure bet that some creature (or creatures) posting here will deride it.