A slice of life.

[theweaselking]

Me: Here, have a link. It will make you cry but not in a totally bad way.

[time passes]

Frances: I want to smack this writer.

Me: Don't read the comments. NEVER read the comments.

Frances: But it's a comment by the writer!

Me: Even then. I try to avoid letting comments, even author's comments, get in the way of a piece.

Frances: The piece itself has its problems!

Me: Granted, he totally dismisses the idea that the man might want help and be unable to ask for it, or that he might desperately NEED help. But he still offered it?

Frances: I suppose?

Me: Think of it this way. He's a teabagger from Alabama, and he stopped and gave a homeless man a meal, and a sympathetic ear, and he offered further help and he shared the man's story. The bar of humanity may be set extremely low, but, at least this one time, this guy cleared it?

Comments

[torrain.livejournal.com]

The goddamn comments.

"So many people are just one “paycheck away” from living on the streets and having their whole lives turned upside down. My wife and I see lots of people out on the streets holding similar signs and as you have said in your essay, they just want the money."

No. Really?

[drcuriosity]

The quality of mercy is not strained; it's pulped :-\

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*cribs that line for future reference*

It's just the disconnect in that comment that really stuns me. "Migod, people are very close to ending up on the street due to lack of money. Can you believe people who do end up there want money? How shameful."

[maelorin]

the myth that all you need is drive and you'll be ok pervades the thinking of many on the conservative side of politics.

the whole story merely confirms the ideological position that drive is everything ... unless you *want* something, you won't get it or keep it, and unless you 'work' for it, you don't deserve it (unless you're wealthy, but then *someone* must have worked hard for you to have all that money).

i wonder if this 'recovering political prostitute' would have been so generous if the guy were younger? or his eyes not so blue and gentle?

the guy can recognise the symptoms of depression, but can't be bothered doing anything to actually help. bet he loves his country ... just doesn't give a rats arse about his fellow citizens.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

And intelligent. Don't forget the eyes were intelligent. You can tell such a thing, by merely looking at a person.

I was thinking (possibly foolishly optimistically) that the author can recognize the symptoms of depression and has no frigging clue what they mean. That he can toss the word "depressed" around and thinks it means "horribly sad and absent-minded" and talk to man that he knows is not functioning properly and still blithely toss off lines like "he seemed pretty clear that he’s not ready to change his life yet." and--

Okay. Right. Saying it out loud, no, he just doesn't give a fuck. I can't tell if that's "I don't give a fuck because I'm busy mining these details for this story which will have people congratulating me on my gentle and generous nature!" or "I don't give a fuck because I have the same disconnect the commentors do, where I can comment on what people lack one sentence and then turn around and act as if they have exactly enough of what they need the next", but I really don't think it matters.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

And, not to put too fine a point on it, he was white. Do you think that if this had been a person of color, David would have been nearly as interested? :/

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Honestly? No. :S