Help the Homeless.
Do you have any change to donate? Mariah and I reach for our wallets and a group of tourists approach from behind. Picture this: a group of middle-aged women, necks craned to the sky, sporting city branded t-shirts and Liberty hats, headed for the coach bus preparing to depart Broadway.
The bucket man called out to them. Ladies, would you care to help the homeless?
As if their entire night had been ruined by raining prunes, the women looked at the man, seemingly in an attempt to avoid looking at his imaginary third eye. Smiles and giggles replaced with gaping mouths and blank stares. In sync with one another, the women turned on their heels and continued on their way, a silent yet blatant dismissal of the call to service.
Me being who I am, I looked at the women, almost in disbelief. It amazes me how people can find the most important people of our world to be the least significant.
That man playing the buckets in the subway.
Even that convict-turned-Christian distributing pamphlets.
What about the woman who made the F train her home?
From the outside looking in, New York City is place to come for the best shopping and attractions.
Lion King on Broadway... Fashion Night Out on 5th Av... Knicks at Madison Square Garden
Blinded by these attractions. visitors lack appreciation for what NY really is: a concrete jungle, where only the resourceful survive, and the poor make the city rich. Rich in culture, diversity, art, and history.
Living here for over a year now, I've grown to love New York as my second home. One of the things I love most about being here is knowing that everyday I will meet someone new and see something different. It isn't the bright lights and designer stores that draws me in; it's those people I never expect to cross paths with. It isn't the rich I care to mingle with, those aren't the people I relate with. I much more value the homeless I share my food with, the starving artists I indulge with... those are the one's I care to be amongst. The ones that face the back of society's ugly head... the ones that can never get a break... the ones that get passed by the tourists.
The poor of this place bring the city it's wealth. Help them, or prepare for reverse gentrification.
I would just like to say thank you. Your words are much more than an inspiration, they are an interpretaion of the human in me... in all of us. You are magnificent. But I'm sure you already know that.
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