90-year-old Florida man arrested for second time in a week after feeding the homeless again

The irony here is that in many places, you can be fined if you don't pick up after your dog. Those same places have made it a point not to enforce ordinances against public urination and defecation.
 

treeguy64 said:
In a thoroughly researched documentary on the homeless problem in Seattle, the percentage of homeless with drug problems was set at around 95%, if I recall correctly. Sorry, nobody forced them to get into drugs and become homeless, with some exceptions, I'm sure.

Watch the documentary on YouTube.

Click to expand...
I watched this recently. Chilling.
 
I am so glad that you nice folks in here want to feed everyone, so that even the homeless folks can live the good life, in your town. Please let me know the cities you live in, so I can let the street corner and underpass dwellers in Austin know that they should make a beeline to your towns.

Until you've gazed, momentarily, up at a slope bordering your local interstate and seen a filthy, wasted, bum defecating with his butt facing you, until you are hustled for spare change as you walk down the street minding your own business, until you drive home, one night, to find a totally whacked out homeless man sitting on your lawn chair, mumbling to himself, it's great to play Mother Theresa, with mind games that see you looking out for everyone.

FYI: "The current Austin homeless population is 2,255 according to ECHO," Wittman said in an email, referencing the non-profit Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. "The current Austin budget calls for $62.7 million to be spent on homelessness initiatives. This breaks down to $27,804.88 per homeless person." - Oct 17, 2019

Again, just let me know your hometowns, and I'll send some wonderful homeless people your way. Dog knows, Austin can spare "a few!"

Thanks!
 

oldman said:
I can remember back in the day when my mom would give a bum a sandwich or whatever food stuff was handy. They would ask for work, but mom would tell them no need and “hold on a minute.” Then she would make them a sandwich or two and also whatever pastry she had handy and give it to them. Dad was always OK with that.

Ft. Lauderdale is a beautiful area with gated communities and a really nice touristy beach. Maybe they just want to deter the homeless not to bother to come into their piece of paradise. It’s really a selfish act, if you ask me. I believe in charity to those that need it. This is America and no one should have to go hungry.
Click to expand...


OK, how'bout a different view ?

A person works hard, for many years , saves their money and can now lives in a really nice place.....But going to & from this really nice place they must pass someone else pissin' & or taking a dump in their neighborhood. Or maybe a couple having sex behind the bushes, the successful person turns to see what is going on , shaking their head. As they turn back they find they just stepped in a pile of human shit........

Yeah, it was really worth all that hard work ............ Now where do they go ?
 
rgp said:
OK, how'bout a different view ?

A person works hard, for many years , saves their money and can now lives in a really nice place.....But going to & from this really nice place they must pass someone else pissin' & or taking a dump in their neighborhood. Or maybe a couple having sex behind the bushes, the successful person turns to see what is going on , shaking their head. As they turn back they find they just stepped in a pile of human shit........

Yeah, it was really worth all that hard work ............ Now where do they go ?
Click to expand...

Those actions should not be tolerated and action should be taken by law-enforcement to curb those behaviors, but when people are hungry I can’t turn my back.
 
Lc jones said:
Those actions should not be tolerated and action should be taken by law-enforcement to curb those behaviors, but when people are hungry I can’t turn my back.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and after you've fed them, you better keep your head angled down, so you can watch where you step!
 
Lc jones said:
Those actions should not be tolerated and action should be taken by law-enforcement to curb those behaviors, but when people are hungry I can’t turn my back.
Click to expand...
That's the problem. Law enforcement does nothing about it. What can they do?
 
OK, let's look at the homeless as a population of mainly mentally ill people (because many of them are). So, granted that some of their behavior is disgusting and intolerable. What should be done about them? Just leave them to starve?

Can't we use law enforcement to control the intolerable behavior, but still allow those who want to give them a bite to eat, to do so without harrassment?
 
oldman said:
I can remember back in the day when my mom would give a bum a sandwich or whatever food stuff was handy. They would ask for work, but mom would tell them no need and “hold on a minute.” Then she would make them a sandwich or two and also whatever pastry she had handy and give it to them. Dad was always OK with that.

Ft. Lauderdale is a beautiful area with gated communities and a really nice touristy beach. Maybe they just want to deter the homeless not to bother to come into their piece of paradise. It’s really a selfish act, if you ask me. I believe in charity to those that need it. This is America and no one should have to go hungry.
Click to expand...

True. But this is America and lots of people are now going hungry. This arrest took place 5 years ago. (I looked it up). I wonder how this man is doing now or even if he is still alive.
 
treeguy64 said:
In a thoroughly researched documentary on the homeless problem in Seattle, the percentage of homeless with drug problems was set at around 95%, if I recall correctly. Sorry, nobody forced them to get into drugs and become homeless, with some exceptions, I'm sure.

Watch the documentary on YouTube.

Click to expand...
I highly agree with you... but on the same note, no one force anyone into Divorce, Anxiety, Depression, Tragic Death... but it happens. A lot of people are a paycheck away from being homeless.. and as you say, no one forced them there regardless of the issues. Some people are a huge hospital bill away from being homeless... Life happens. We don't understand anyone story until we walked in their shoes.
 
I have my priorities very straight, and have had my whole life. I think that if you wind up on the street, you have probably made a long, long series of bad choices. I also think it's a lifestyle of choice for almost all of them. Any one of them could walk into a church, or the Salvation Army, or a police station, and get help. But that help would come with strings attached, like becoming drug free, and that's what keeps them on the street.
 
I'm trying really hard to not be angry at some of these responses, because I have a very personal take on the subject of homelessness.

My son became homeless after years of drug abuse and addiction, after years of countless rehabs, of relapses, jail time and wretchedness. And after years of me trying to help him. I finally recognized that my "help" was just enabling, and I stepped away. And as a direct result of that, he became homeless. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, with the potential for the worst possible outcome, but I did it anyway.

He was turned away by the homeless shelter, the police department, a church or two. He almost didn't make it. I went for months not knowing if he was alive or dead. Did he get where he was by his own choices? Absolutely. But as his Mom, that fact didn't ease my sleepless nights, my worry and concern, my days of driving around seeing a homeless shelter here or a bum there, slowing down and looking closely to see if it was my kid.

I will be forever grateful to the nameless individuals who gave my son food, a dollar or two for a hamburger, basic kindness and compassion. It got him through. It ultimately returned him to me. 5 years clean and sober now, just for today, and he's doing well. But he too never fails to hand a dollar or a sandwich or whatever he has with him to a homeless person, because that was him not too very long ago. And he, like me, will never forget the random kindness shown to him when he was at his very worst.
 
so as i read through the lines --their saying=dont feed the HOMELESS OR WE CANT GET RID OF THEM !!!!!!!
in the uk….. we feed them everyday someone somewhere buys them big mac or kfc ---- or gives them coffee all year round '
it dont break any rules over here -- what harm is there - 90 years old what a load of b---s---.
 
CarolfromTX said:
I have my priorities very straight, and have had my whole life. I think that if you wind up on the street, you have probably made a long, long series of bad choices. I also think it's a lifestyle of choice for almost all of them. Any one of them could walk into a church, or the Salvation Army, or a police station, and get help. But that help would come with strings attached, like becoming drug free, and that's what keeps them on the street.
Click to expand...


Exactly !
 
Gennie, don't give up yet. The Ft. Lauderdale city council is not "America."

Ronni, thanks for sharing your heartbreaking (though uplifting) story with us. What a nightmare for a mother to live through. I am so glad your son got through his own nightmare, and is now doing well. And your reference to "basic kindness and compassion" pretty much says it all on this subject.
 
gennie said:
America has lost it's conscience.

There was a time when the overall basic instinct in this country was simply to 'do the right thing.' Where did it go?
Click to expand...


There was a time when the overall basic instinct in this country was to "get up'get out & get a job" And support ones self, pay ones tax , & be a contributing member of society. And during this time, those that refused to were considered bums, and lived down by the railroad tracks, and if they refused to do "the right thing" they were properly shunned by the masses...........Where did that go ?
 
gennie said:
America has lost it's conscience.

There was a time when the overall basic instinct in this country was simply to 'do the right thing.' Where did it go?
Click to expand...

I could say, but most already know and don't want to hear it or wouldn't change an iota if they did.
 
rgp said:
There was a time when the overall basic instinct in this country was to "get up'get out & get a job" And support ones self, pay ones tax , & be a contributing member of society. And during this time, those that refused to were considered bums, and lived down by the railroad tracks, and if they refused to do "the right thing" they were properly shunned by the masses...........Where did that go ?
Click to expand...
How does this apply to an elderly man being arrested for being charitable to someone less fortunate?
 
What Keeps a Man Alive?
Lyrics Tom Waits

(The original version of this song was in the 1928 musical, The Threepenny Opera.)

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching that's where it begins

You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for once the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing morals follow on

So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive

What keeps mankind alive
The fact that millions
Are daily tortured stifled punished silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
For once you must try not to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive
By bestial acts
 
“How To Survive”
lyrics by Bertolt Brecht
music by Kurt Weill
from “The Threepenny Opera”


Now those among you full of pious teaching
Who teach us to renounce the major sins
should know before you do your heavy preaching
our middle’s empty
there it all begins
Your vices and our virtues are so dear to you
So learn the simple truth from this our song
wherever you aspire
whatever you may do
first feed the face
and then talk right and wrong
For even honest folk
May act like sinners
unless they’ve had their customary dinners.

What keeps a man alive?
What keeps a man alive
He lives on others
He likes to taste them first then eat them whole if he can
Forgets that they’re supposed to be his brothers
That he himself
Was ever called a man
Remember if you wish to stay alive
For once do something bad and you’ll survive.

You warn us with appropriate caresses
That virtue humble virtue always wins
Now please before your moral verve oppresses
Our middle’s empty there it all begins
Oh you who dote in our despair and your desire
may learn the simple truth from this our song
whatever you may do whatever you aspire
first feed the face and then talk right and wrong
for even saintly folk may act like sinners
unless they’ve had their customary dinners
WHat keeps a man alive?
What keeps a man alive
He lives on others
He likes to taste them first then eat them whole if he can
Forgets that they’re supposed to be his brothers
That he himself was ever called a man
Remember if you wish to stay alive

For once do something bad and you’ll survive.
 
In our town, we have a place to bring food and clothes up until 12 noon....I don't think they take fruit and or any kind of food, only boxed food, like cookies, soup, and many other things that are packaged....All free.....No questions asked....We have many in our town that need help...
It's not a big deal to help some that are trying to feed and clothe their family....(I'm not sure if they have to show where they live or if they are
home less) Many people are very generous....That's a Good Thing......
 
treeguy64 said:
I am so glad that you nice folks in here want to feed everyone, so that even the homeless folks can live the good life, in your town. Please let me know the cities you live in, so I can let the street corner and underpass dwellers in Austin know that they should make a beeline to your towns.

Until you've gazed, momentarily, up at a slope bordering your local interstate and seen a filthy, wasted, bum defecating with his butt facing you, until you are hustled for spare change as you walk down the street minding your own business, until you drive home, one night, to find a totally whacked out homeless man sitting on your lawn chair, mumbling to himself, it's great to play Mother Theresa, with mind games that see you looking out for everyone.

FYI: "The current Austin homeless population is 2,255 according to ECHO," Wittman said in an email, referencing the non-profit Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. "The current Austin budget calls for $62.7 million to be spent on homelessness initiatives. This breaks down to $27,804.88 per homeless person." - Oct 17, 2019

Again, just let me know your hometowns, and I'll send some wonderful homeless people your way. Dog knows, Austin can spare "a few!"

Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...
That was Nasty!!!!.... Hopefully you will never be Homeless, UGH!!!!!!

We had a family across the street for many years....(They now had to leave, they weren't paying taxes) I would give clothes to the children, I gave them Christmas stocking's every year, The Father died and the Mom was younger then me, but ...The Grandma lived with them and was always in and out of the Hospital....The House was going to Pot! They were on assistance...

I Just saw the younger girl in a store....She was having her third baby...She told me where she lived but they have to get out after Christmas..
I didn't ask why!!!! Anyway, I don't know people's business...If I can help n any way I did try with this family....But if people are homeless there
are places they can go....

So we don't have many homeless people hanging out in our town....If they are, I never saw them....And if I did see one that was asking for money or food, I would give something to them....But it seems we don't have that in our town....Because, if they are homeless there are places to go.

I don't live in a Big City!!!!!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top