I’m Alright Jack

Posted on | January 30, 2010 | 4 Comments

There was a dusting of snow this morning when I finally woke and looked out the window. It was definitely the light icing sugar dusting of snow and not the thick butter icing covering we had over Christmas and a large chunk of January.

Even so I had spent my night in a nice warm double bed. Which I will be repeating tonight as well. Which is unlike Martin, who will be sleeping rough tonight to raise funds and awareness of the plight of the homeless.

As the late Bill Hicks put it so well:

“Anybody can be a bum; all it takes is the right girl, the right bar and the right friends, and you are well … your buddies will see you off. They’ll christen your dumpster for you.”

In these uncertain economic times I’m surprised that the homeless numbers haven’t gone up. Well I haven’t heard it reported on the news that they have. It does get me thinking just how close some people must be to being homeless. Of course those with families would get emergency housing from the council. But single people just aren’t that lucky. It seems the benefit system and help to those in need in this country is biased against the single person.

I know that the causes of some one becoming homeless can be more complicated than that. And that discussion is a massive one that can be very emotive. The majority of people seem to have an opinion on it. Very often they are polar opposites and there seems to be very little middle ground.

All I will say is that a society should be judged by how it treats it’s weakest and most vulnerable members (yes I know that is a quote from some-one but I’m not sure who said it and can’t be bothered to google it). As far as I can tell our society wouldn’t do very well if it was judged.

I’m going to leave you with more Bill Hicks and ask if you can, pop over to Martin and donate some money if you are able to.

"I’m from Houston, Texas originally, I moved up here a year ago. The first thing I noticed when I came here was the homeless situation. Now I’m no bleeding heart, okay? But . . . when you’re walking down the streets of New York and you step over someone who might be dead do you ever stop to think, ‘wow, maybe our system doesn’t work.’ Does that push a memory bubble up out of you? If there was only a couple of bums I’d think ‘well, they’re just fuckin’ bums,’ but there’s THOUSANDS of these guys. I’m running a bum hurdle down the street. It’s the hundred yard bum hurdle.

"gotanymoneygotanymoneygotanymoneygotanymoney? I tipped that last bum but I didn’t tip him over. Okay, that hurdle counts.

"Some of these guys look healthy but they’re just bums. The very idea. They want me to just give them the hard earned money my folks send to me every week. "You leech. Get a job, my dad works eight hours a day for this money."

"You ever get those bums that turn mental on you? "Sorry, I don’t got any money."

"MOTHERFUCKER!" "Wo wo, where’s my checkbook? Hold on. Is that Mr. Bum? How do I make it out? Is that Capital Vagrant? I didn’t know you were psycho, definitely wasn’t your personality that put you on the street was it?"

With another guy, he said, "Thanks a lot, buddy. You don’t know what it’s like to be broke!" I said, "Yeah I do, that’s why I work. I know exactly what it’s like. You sleep on the pavement, you dig through the garbage for food and you bum money from strangers. Am I right?"

"That is what I do."

"I feel sorry for these guys because I don’t know why they’re bums. Nobody every asks them. "What are you doing? Why are you digging through the garbage."

"You got a quarter?"

"Hey, for that same quarter I can get that bum to squeegee my window. I’m going to comparatively bum shop. I want the most for my bum quarter, and I want a receipt. That’s how you get rid of them. Get a receipt.

"Some people say, "Don’t give him any money, it’s probably for drugs and alcohol"

"Yeah. You’ve never been a junkie then. Drugs are pretty important to a drug addict."

"God damn right it’s for drugs, lady! And if you don’t give it to me I’m going to cut out you fuckin’ heart and eat it front of you."

"Well, if you put it that way." Ding.

"Thank you."

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