MySpace-April 17, 2008-The Homeless and Helping Others

 If you drive south on Providence (the main road, not the outer road) past Stadium, towards Nifong, and look to the right just after you cross the bridge,  you will see some tents, tarps and such. If you go at night, you will see the glow of lights from beneath them. Of course, in another couple of weeks, there'll be leaves on the trees and you won't be able to see this.
Obviously there are people living in the woods. I'm torn about it. These people lived there all winter and when it rains. And maybe when its super hot-but the woods stay pretty cool, I'm sure. They live with the animals. I feel like I should bring them some food. Some toilet paper. Something.
But then I think the opposite. How close did I walk to them when I was living on that side of the street? Are they dangerous? And people can't live in the woods! (I guess they could actually own the land.) I want to call the cops and have them take these people somewhere else.
Today, I helped someone else. A while ago, I found someone on Freecycle that needed someone to go to the food pantry for them. I thought to myself that I needed to do something to help others. And certainly, I could find the time to do this. So today, I finally met with this guy and went to the food pantry for him. His name is Rusty Stuart-which makes me think that he is racecar driver. He's in a wheelchair; he's missing a leg below the knee. He looks like he could be a Vietnam vetern-maybe he is. He has long white hair and a long white beard. I like him. I felt bad because the food pantry didn't have much food. I got him some of everything because he didn't tell me anything in particular. I really thought it would be more like a grocery store-as in well stocked.
So that's my new thing-DONATE FOOD TO YOUR LOCAL FOOD PANTRY! Seriously, if you could see how little stuff they had, it would make you cry. It would make me cry if I relied on the food pantry and was limited to like 20 items because that's all they had. So do it.

[EDIT-Originally, published to Blogger on May 22, 2011.]