Perhaps you’ve read about concerns regarding the homeless and immigrants in New York City. It can be unsettling to have someone suffering from mental illness walk next to you talking to him or herself enraged about a past event playing in a loop inside their head.
But last night a homeless man walked in front of us with a different tone of voice – gentle, urgent, insightful. He was carrying a Fresh Direct grocery bag. He looked in his 40s.
What he said to people walking past him was, “I’m a human being. It doesn’t matter if I’m homeless, I don’t want anything. I don’t want money. You go home and think about what I said. I’m a human being. I’m a human being.”
Everyone walking past this homeless man ignored him, but because we walked behind him we heard every word.
I did think about him the rest of the night and this morning as I type these words in my home.
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