In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, he retells the story of Rip Van Winkle, the man who slept for twenty years. Dr. King explains how the most alarming part of the story is when Rip Van Winkle wakes up he has completely missed out on a revolution. This becomes a parallel to our own lives. Are we passing up the opportunity to aid in something much greater than ourselves, such as helping those in need?
When passing a homeless person on the street, you may catch yourself handing pocket change without much thought. However, is that where the help should end? Most likely we won’t ever notice the loss of the pocket change, and we will feel good about ourselves for giving something we probably won’t miss. But what is sparing a few cents really doing for the homeless? Derek Thompson, an editor for The Atlantic, defends the point that money isn’t going to help make significant changes within the homeless community. In Should You Give Money to Homeless People, he states, “They need money and direction”(2). By direction he means facilities that can point them in the way of jobs, housing, and overall stability. People may argue the homeless have …show more content…
Of course we emptied our pockets, but I didn’t think much about it on until he came out of the gas station holding craft glue and not food. Confused, I asked our translator about the boy. He said that many homeless children use glue to get a drug high, a habit often picked up on the streets. If every person we knew took an hour out of his or her week to help overcome poverty, what a difference it would make. What if every person you knew could connect the word poverty with a name, face or story? How determined would they be to serve? What this Nicaraguan boy needed was guidance and structure. Something far more than our money could give
When passing a homeless person on the street, you may catch yourself handing pocket change without much thought. However, is that where the help should end? Most likely we won’t ever notice the loss of the pocket change, and we will feel good about ourselves for giving something we probably won’t miss. But what is sparing a few cents really doing for the homeless? Derek Thompson, an editor for The Atlantic, defends the point that money isn’t going to help make significant changes within the homeless community. In Should You Give Money to Homeless People, he states, “They need money and direction”(2). By direction he means facilities that can point them in the way of jobs, housing, and overall stability. People may argue the homeless have …show more content…
Of course we emptied our pockets, but I didn’t think much about it on until he came out of the gas station holding craft glue and not food. Confused, I asked our translator about the boy. He said that many homeless children use glue to get a drug high, a habit often picked up on the streets. If every person we knew took an hour out of his or her week to help overcome poverty, what a difference it would make. What if every person you knew could connect the word poverty with a name, face or story? How determined would they be to serve? What this Nicaraguan boy needed was guidance and structure. Something far more than our money could give