Skip to main content

Does it Surprise us When Homeless People do Something Good?


There was a story that caught my attention a little while back in my city. At first I was happy about the story because it isn't often that homeless people are painted in a positive light. Here is an excerpt from the story:

Faron Hall, 44, was given a medal of valour by Mayor Sam Katz at a ceremony not far from the riverbank where Hall often sleeps. Hall saw a boy fall into the river last weekend and dove into the chilly, fast-moving water to pull him ashore. Now the man who has been homeless for about seven years has become the talk of the town.


I was excited to see that people would see that homeless people have heart, courage and respect for their fellow man. However, when I saw the same thing on the national news a few days later, as the story seemed to take off around the country I began to wonder...is it really that surprising to us? Is it so shocking that people who live on the street care about people?

In the time I have spent around homeless people that is the thing that sticks out to me more than anything. People who live on the street or in poverty tend to be more generous and caring about one another than anyone else I have ever met.

Reminds me of a sign I saw at a church I was driving by one day:

Poverty is a problem
Riches is not the answer

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Phil said…
can't wait to hang with you and some homeless dudes this weekend.
10:00 pm
Jamie Arpin-Ricci said…
I felt the same way about the story. It was as though his being homeless was more important than his being human.

See you soon, bro.
6:45 am
Anonymous said…
I am not so sure I feel the same way about the publicity. Anyone would have received that publicity for doing the same as Faron did. When I walk over a bridge over the Red River, I cannot imagine ANYONE going into that swift moving, cold water so it surprises me that someone did that. I am so happy that it was a homeless man so that people actually put a face and name to one of "them". It is the "us and them" mentality that saddens me so I am pleased that one of "them" became one of "us" for a while. Hopefully for some of us that will last longer than just a few days. MOM
8:17 am
Trevor said…
Mom, that is exactly the issue that I was talking about, and I totally agree with you. I just felt like they emphasized so much that he was homeless, and it seemed like that was the shocking part. Not the fact that he jumped into the water.
8:08 am
Anonymous said…
I've been thinking about this recently as well and I have to agree. It certainly doesn't shock me that people on the streets care for people. I've seen this first hand. The thing is there are many people doing great acts like these regularly and we should be equally appreciative of all. The fact that every time Faron Hall comes up the word homeless also does is depressing. Thank this guy a lot for what he did. Not because he's homeless and he did it. Don't treat him like somehow he's "underneath" the average Canadian and still did something that was actually good. In my opinion that just points out the ignorance that a lot of North America shares towards the homeless.
6:54 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should I Bring Jesus to the Poor?

I met this young lady who works for an inner city organization that works with children. She has been working there for 10 years. She said one thing in particular that really struck me. She said, "I used to think that when I came to the inner city to work with these kids that I would bring Jesus to them, but when I got here and started working with them, I started to realize that Jesus was already here." It struck me because I think that we middle class people (not just Christians) think that we should go into the inner-city and "rescue" people from their situation. We often feel as though we have all the answers and they have everything wrong. Is it possible that it is the other way around? Is it possible that people who live on the streets...those who don't worry about tomorrow, those who are not obsessed with money or material possessions actually have something to teach us? I think so. So in response to the question, "Should I bring Jesus to the po...
2 comments
Read more

My Work Against Homelessness

I have been thinking quite a lot about homelessness (over the last two years especially) and have come to all kinds of conclusions about myself and the things that I (and the church) need to do in order to help people who are in that situation. I have been involved in a few organizations who work with homeless people and met with many people to discuss what I/we should be doing to help. I finally discovered something very important that I can do right now. I am reading t his book called Bent Hope which is a really interesting read. The author is a Youth Worker who works with young people who live on the streets in Toronto. He walks the streets and hangs out with them and helps when he can. He basically just tells the stories of his encounters with people and talks a little bit about what he has learned from them. I am loving it! So, I know what I am supposed to do to help homelessness. In his book, pretty much everyone he encounters he mentions how they come from a family situa...
8 comments
Read more