02-05-2010, 05:08 AM
That's a sad story of a real man's experience, economic hardship. Many other factors in his life are not known. At any other time, it would be recognized as such, a story about a man. In our current climate, it becomes a symbol of some larger thing, emblematic of a national injustice. I'm okay with not attempting to link it to a larger pattern, to score points in a political debate. But it could be read any number of ways, depending on your inclination. I think you did the right thing, a simple, direct, generous act, common sense, something I hope many of us would do in a similar situation.
Person to person voluntary generosity and community involvement certainly has its merits. It's less costly and more humane than the construction of an expensive, multi-layered self-interested bureaucracy entrusted with asset redistribution, managing or mismanaging an effort to provide $15 worth of pills to a guy standing next to you at a pharmacy. Either way, to just give direct aid to a neighbor in need is the decent thing to do.
Person to person voluntary generosity and community involvement certainly has its merits. It's less costly and more humane than the construction of an expensive, multi-layered self-interested bureaucracy entrusted with asset redistribution, managing or mismanaging an effort to provide $15 worth of pills to a guy standing next to you at a pharmacy. Either way, to just give direct aid to a neighbor in need is the decent thing to do.