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A view of the homeless

Posted at 11:26 AM on February 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Life

How do you perceive homeless people?

A story out of Boston today raises the question. A homeless man found a woman's wallet. A homeless man found it and returned it, which is what got the headlines in the city.

But perhaps the story was actually in the last sentence of the story:

Susan Clancy regrets not knowing the man's name, but said his honesty
has changed the way she perceives people living on the street.

Why is it news when a homeless person commits an act of honesty?

Comments (3)

A more important question than why when a homeless man does something honest gets to be news is.... what did the woman give the homeless man to help him? I could care less that her "views" on homeless people have changed. Would it be not surprising at all if the homeless man kept the wallet?

Posted by Mary | February 19, 2009 11:35 AM

"Would it be not surprising at all if the homeless man kept the wallet?"

Yes, it would not be surprising at all. For most non-homeless people, we can't imagine living on the streets unless there was absolutely no other option. When we project homelessness on ourselves, we imagine a state of absolute desperation where we would do whatever it took to scrape up a buck. "Finders keepers, losers weepers" is how the vast majority of us would act if we were in that situation, so that is what we expect of others.

Posted by bsimon | February 19, 2009 12:05 PM

The delusion that others are different from us enables fear & hatred.

Posted by Chad | February 19, 2009 12:46 PM