| Author | Message | ||
     Blake |
What a powerful message. So much truth in such a simple example. http://youtu.be/CPdqtktkZn0 | ||
| Crusty |
Thanks for putting that up, Blake. | ||
| Torquehd |
I hate to admit that I got choked up watching that too. I've tried to brainstorm and figure out an answer to homelessness (joblessness, lack of ability to earn an income, lack of ability to provide food and shelter for one's self). I've yet to come up with anything. It seems that handing money to beggars is not the solution, and I'm inclined to believe that it only perpetuates the problem. I could be wrong. "For I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me".... "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" - Jesus, Matt 25:35 and following. Anyone have any ideas for fixing the problem (providing means of earning shelter and food for those who are currently homeless)? There have to be a few ideas out there. | ||
| Blake |
What really hit me was how clearly that man showed me how selfish and cowardly I am when it comes to fully living In Christ. I don't, and that needs to change. Take note of his situation. This is no professional beggar. Note the luggage and lack of shoes, probably stolen from him. A man without much of anything, yet he was eager to share with a perfect stranger what he did have, all the while probably not knowing where he would find his next meal. Then when thanked with sincere gratitude and appreciation, he was transformed from beggar to provider, and that changed him, brought him back. He knew instantly that he was not worthless, that he had a gift more valuable than anything, love for others. It's easy to ignore the needs and suffering of others. | ||
| Slaughter |
My problem with the "feel good" effect of tossing the homeless some food or change is that in effect you are ONLY doing a feel good for yourself without giving the person a hand up. I know too many people who throw somebody some change - and then walking away, thinking they're doing good. I say money and time is better spent in giving to organizations organized precisely to work with addicts, with homeless with disadvantaged to LIFT them up out of their situation - or better yet, volunteer for those organizations. You will be doing MORE GOOD WORK than throwing somebody a slice of pizza, a couple bucks... ... and then walking away. | ||
| Hootowl |
Truth is, most homeless folks have psychological issues and or drug dependencies. Giving them money isn't going to help them. Give your money to a local shelter. They're doing to Lord's work. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
ubuntu google it. I saw a 2 hour vid about this yesterday and while it contained some very far-fetched ideas, there was a section about solving the problems of homeless and otherwise disadvantaged people as well as a way of forcing out the world banks and over-controlling government that made a lot of sense. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVROBhwHUM | ||
| Slaughter |
Precisely | ||
| Crusty |
Have you ever been down and out? Ever been Homeless? Have you ever had somebody give you a helping hand which put you back on your feet? Sometimes Life kicks you square in the nuts, then steps on you. That Pizza and the positive reinforcement that it gave to the guy on the street might just be enough to give him the fortitude to try one more time. | ||
| Slaughter |
Every time I see one of these, I'll usually search a little deeper. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOckShow Self-promoting, nothing more, nothing less. Crusty - yes I have been there. NOT as far down to where I just sat in place, willing to accept hand-outs. I had to collect bus fare by walking through shopping malls and parking lots picking up dropped coins. Lived in a contractor's office at night to provide free "night watchman" service since they were in a high crime area - the "red light district" close to LAX. I would bet that if you consider the "typical" street case, you'd be doing better if you offered them a way out of their situation, not just a way to stay stuck. Giving food and/or money is generally NOT helping. I also worked for 2 years in our local NEAR center (Narcotics Education And Rehabilitation) - working the hotline and fundraising... "Help is NEAR" - that was rewarding. Those pimps and pranksters who produced that video are KNOWN for pranking and I personally consider that video nothing more than self-promotion. Cynical? CERTAINLY - but I'd have been more impressed had they loaded the guy into their van, taken him to one of the MANY relief agencies (Governmental or private or religious) and been active in giving the guy some OPTIONS to get out of his situation... not just handing him a pizza, filming the exchange and then leaving him just as alone at the end of the video as he was at the beginning. | ||
| Crusty |
The part that strikes me is that the kid was only asking for a slice of pizza. He wasn't asking for money, and I don't see how giving someone who's hungry a little food is not helping them. I've been homeless. I remember spending the last of my money getting a haircut so I looked respectable and walked to every gas station in Albuquerque asking if they needed any help. And I came up dry. Then to have some jackass say, "Get a F***in' job!" really cut deep. I'm too proud to ask for money; I'd rather starve. But the people who helped me the times I was down were the people who didn't have much themselves. Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven. I think I can understand what he was saying. | ||
| Blake |
Steve, I think you missed the more important point, at least for me. (See my comments prior.) Can you explain the emotion of the guy at the end of the video? I do agree that giving money to beggars is typically a poor choice. Food not so much. Most actually don't want food. Most are after money for their drugs/alcohol. Even so, my role model instructs more liberally on the issue. "Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." — Jesus Christ | ||
| Racerx |
"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." — Jesus Christ That sounds like some socialist, commie talk right there! | ||
| Slaughter |
The emotion of the guy is IMPLIED. Having been desperate, I can relate to desperation in his CONTINUING to be stuck in exactly the same place - except with two more slices than he had a half hour prior. I am pissed at the OBVIOUS self-promotion of the guys who set this up. WHY the aggressive pimping of their logo in EVERY scene? This is receiving a LOT of hits - and therefore they are getting a LOT of money through Youtube and Farce Book. I agree that the sentiment that is IMPLIED in the video is marvelous - but these guys producing the video are doing NOTHING except promoting their site. Give me your town and within 5 minutes, I'll give you a DOZEN charitable organizations who work with people like this to offer them opportunities - not just 1000 calories and then turn their back. I refuse to support internet pranksters EVEN IF they carefully edit a video to make themselves look better than they really are. I am also willing to bet that like that kid in Syria who was staged to pull the girl out of "gunfire" - we'll find this to be equally staged. (Message edited by slaughter on November 17, 2014) | ||
| Sifo |
This guy just doesn't come off as homeless to me at all. At least that's not how it's done in Chicago. He's dressed way too clean too. Nice neat cloths for a homeless person. Nice hair cut too. Add the electronics strapped to his belt, and there's just no way I'm buying it. The homeless tend to stake out a spot and let the world come to them. This guy was on the move. Homeless people also pack everything with them. This guy had nothing but his clean clothes for the day. And his electronics strapped to his belt. Not sure about the "real" homeless guy either. Nice hair cut. Trimmed beard. Very nice looking back pack BTW. Only place I've seen homeless people with no shoes at all has been Hawaii, but their feet were dirtier than the rest of them. There is no one size fit's all solution for the homeless. Some prefer to live that way and will refuse to be helped. For those who want it, help is out there. I tend to agree with Slaughter that the walk by hand out doesn't really help them. | ||
| Froggy |
That was my first take, the entire exchange reeks of setup. | ||
| Blake |
Not when you understand that he's not telling you to take from some by threat of force to redistribute to others as you see fit while teaching them that they are entitled to it. That is the Marxist way. The Chrstian way is to treat others as you would be treated, to love our neighbors as ourselves. | ||
| Crusty |
You know; Blake posts a touching video about Charity and helping those who are less fortunate, and people are quick to jump against the very notion of Christian charity. Helping out those who are less fortunate than they are. Instead of just looking at the message, the people who made the video are being taken to task. So what if the whole flippin' thing was staged? Is the message any less true? Has self centered greed replaced Christian Charity as the predominant American virtue? Should we not care about those who life has knocked down? Would you really tell the kid who says he's very hungry to beat it? | ||
| Blake |
Sifo, There's only one homeless guy in the video. The others are just actors. Am I the only one who saw that from the start? Steve, This could be an AT&T commercial for all I care. The message is brilliant and hits home regardless if staged or genuine. It sure communicated deeply into my soul. I don't get the all cynicism, not just yours, all those here scoffing and criticizing. I guess my perspective is just different. Michele didn't see it either. I'd love for people making such inspirational videos to earn a ton of money from them. Sure beats most of the foolishness on youtube. | ||
| Slaughter |
I understand your sentiment, Blake - it's just that these memes are thrown around as if they are real. I'd rather hear about somebody doing ACTUAL GOOD work... look up Pardis Sabeti and her work in Angola, Kenya with malaria and Ebola and genetic modeling of disease and disease resistance. People BENEFIT from this work - being done at HUGE personal risk. I am cynical BECAUSE the producers of that video are OBVIOUSLY working their brand name into every image. I question their motives. Again, I understand your position - I just hate rewarding disingenuous people. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
First off, let me premise by saying I live in the suburbs of Baltimore. I frequent the I-95 corridor from Baltimore to Washington. I've never seen nor met a kid that was hungry and living on the streets. I've seen and met plenty of addicts and mentally ill people who were homeless by choice or by their own perpetual poor choices. I believe "normal" people who become homeless due to circumstance seek out and find the resources available to them. The vast majority of people you see inhabiting the woods or the city streets are there either because they want to be or are mentally ill. I have endless anecdotal stories spanning the last thirty years supporting my observations. | ||
| Sifo |
Sifo, There's only one homeless guy in the video. The others are just actors. Am I the only one who saw that from the start? No, I understood that from the beginning. My point is that people who are used to seeing the homeless in a city will also recognize that these people are clearly not homeless either. I saw them daily when I used to work down town Chicago. The homeless simply don't look, or act as these people did. I seriously question the one "real" homeless guy in the video. He looks like a set up for the video. In fact, in Chicago, if he was sitting in "his spot", and another person came and plopped down next to him like that, it wouldn't be taken kindly. They tend to be very territorial. It's real bad for there business having the competition sitting right next to you. | ||
| Strokizator |
Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven. Crusty quoting the Bible? I can die happily now as I've truly seen everything.  | ||
| Sifo |
Oddly, at one point in our lives, my wife and I had some serious discussions about taking on the homeless life. It would have been a lifestyle choice for us. We would not have been considered the "typical" homeless though. We did discuss it with some people who were doing it though. We would never have considered it at all if we weren't talking about doing on Maui. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Homeless on Maui. I can think of worse things in life | ||
| Sifo |
There are far worse things. Funny thing about Maui. You can camp on the beach as long as you have a fishing line in the water. You might even get dinner! Remind me to tell you about it sometime...  | ||
| Torquehd |
Has self centered greed replaced Christian Charity as the predominant American virtue? I assume that is a rhetorical question, because the answer is so blatantly yes. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I think you will find Christians still remarkably generous. I think you will also find many of them them genuinely concerned as well, and not as willing to help you hurt yourself. I still have a crystal clear data point from when I moved from a small rural town to a big city to go to college. I had to walk by a homeless guy every morning on my way to class (off campus facility). For the first month or so, when I had a little extra, I would give him change because he said he was hungry and needed to buy food. After that, I realized the dorm meal plan I had meant I could get a sack lunch on the way out, a real hassle to go get it, but I did. At that point I was used to just skipping lunch and getting a big dinner (dorm buffet, lousy food but as much as I wanted), so I got the sack lunch and handed it to him instead. A decent sandwich, fruit, and a cookie or something. I was skipping lunch, which I wanted but could live without, so he could eat. I came back out that evening after classes, and not 1 foot from where he was sitting, that whole lunch was just thrown on the ground untouched. I didn't give him any more money. By doing so, I was just helping him drink himself to death. As Steve says, I do try and help with managed charities that try to genuinely help people, not just give them money to send them further down the rat hole they are trapped in. That's real Christian love. Now, if I wanted to keep these people in bondage and slavery, I'd make sure I am handing them fish, and keeping them the hell away from any fishing poles. | ||
| Crusty |
I love the way people keep twisting this around. The kid was asking for food. he wasn't asking for money or for you to enable him to support his drug or alcohol problem. Or even to help him straighten his life out. All he asked for was a slice of pizza. And the three people he first asked blew him off. It was the guy who had little to spare that fed him. Maybe the whole thing was staged, and maybe the guys who made the video are rolling in dough; but the message was pretty clear to me. And it matches what I've personally experienced in my life. When the shit hits the fan, it's the people on the bottom who'll go out of their way to help you out. | ||
| Sifo |
This tells a different story than the video... Where Do Americans Rank in Terms of Giving? |
