There's this black guy named Daryl who lives out of his van in the Safeway/Shucks/Skipper's parking lot near my old apartment that I'd take to breakfast or lunch every week & help him with a job. He eventually started working out of a temp agency a few weeks later & he wrote me a letter telling me how grateful he was for me helping him clean up his act... I even did some work on his van to get it running again, and I got mad discount at the Shuck's b/c the guy was glad to get him out of the parking lot... anyways, this goes back to the whole give him a fish & he'll eat for a day thing... the guy still works at Draper Valley Farms processing chickens 3 or 4 nights a week and moved into an apartment with a few guys he works with...

When I go to Seattle I see bums quite frequently, and I do my best to help, but I don't just give them money. I like to sit & chat with street bums because they are people just like us, just in a different situation. I figure if I can help someone realize who they really are, and get them out of their bad situation, I've had a life-long impact on someone, and I feel good about that. My girlfriend gets kinda scared around street people and gets really close, but I'm nearly as broke as they are half the time, and I know what it's like to go days w/o food because you are broke (even if you are working!).

At any rate, I have a soft spot for homeless people because a few of them are actually aware of the burden they pose on society & would have never imagined themselves in that situation, and I usually don't have a problem spending a few minutes with a couple street people and help them out w/o preaching to them or ignoring them...