The Gaming Den

My family decided on a Secret Santa this Christmas. I joked around with friends about doing a Secret Satan this Christmas. Do I really need that Clint Eastwood movie collection? Those Hellboy comics? That Forbidden Island game? That push up/pull up/sit up bar? Do I really need those gift certificate and massages? No. Did I want them? Yes.

I really don't know if I truly need something. But are there people out there who do need something? Yes, they need things malleable and concrete. Not just well wishes and prayers. Not just a smile. They definitely do not need the hurried walk that we do when faced with them.

Despite being disabled, I do live a life that has more than the bare necessities. But there are so many around me that have less, much less, than the bare necessities. I was in New York City the other day. Stephanie and I had attended the annual Christmas party that her company hosts. The men wore well-stitched suits. The women wore slinky, sexy, expensive dresses. Fillet mignon for dinner, Decadent chocolate cake for dessert. Bubbly, wine, beer, scotch, and my Gin and Tonic to drink. There was this amazingly talented, and charming actor-cum-waiter called Vince who regaled us with his stories of acting in an off-off Broadway version of Xanadu. So much fun.

But what was happening outside? Two blocks away, a woman lay on ground with those few possessions she owned stacked up on her to provide heat. In the train station, there was a man about to go to sleep wearing a dirty Jets shirt Jacket. At the New York Penn station hub, there was this man who wore shorts and a 20 square inch cardboard as shirt, coat, and heat provider. I remember walking past them hurriedly, not giving more than a perfunctory gaze. I remember feeling like an utter shit after all this. But still I did nothing.


I ask myself what I need to do now. Tomorrow, I am going to go through my closet picking out things that are too small for me to wear. Things that I don't really need. Then, I think I will go and hand them over to those on the street. I ask you to do the same. If you are afraid to go out and do it. Go to a salvation army. Go to a homeless shelter. Lend a hand or just donate.

That is what I want for Christmas.

Will you give them this?

Cynic, I love you.



I will do my best!

I'm donating excess books and games to my local public library. Been considering donating to a toy drive, but most of the old things I'd be willing to donate are handmade wooden sparring weapons, and that doesn't seem very appropriate.

What I want for christmas is for people with sigs more than 4 lines deep to put them in an sblock.

Avoraciopoctules wrote: What I want for christmas is for people with sigs more than 4 lines deep to put them in an sblock.

Done.

I sent you a PM.

I hear that New York is particularly bad in its treatment of the homeless, although I've never been there. But, yeah, if you have clothes that you aren't going to wear or food that you aren't going to eat, you should donate it. Books and games too, if your library won't take them. Don't let that stuff go to waste.

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Avoraciopoctules wrote:What I want for christmas is for people with sigs more than 4 lines deep to put them in an sblock.

NEVER!!!

New york's callous attitude towards their homeless population is based on it's government.

While there was a systemic disregard for the homeless before Giuliani's time, he was the one who fucked them over hardcore.

Under his regime, the cops did regular sweeps of the parks and other locations where homeless gathered to shunt them towards already overcrowded shelters. When the city council opposed his methods, he attacked the homeless in the specific locales of the councilmen who opposed him.

His racial bias is also part of this. Almost half of NYC's homeless are black or hispanic.

The practices haven't really been reversed since his leaving the office. THe police just don't do sweeps. But the disregard to sheltering them and providing proper financial assistance to shelters and programs is atrocious.

One should note, that something else the police do, is on the most brutally cold nights, they go around arresting homeless people. It's a really old use of the vagrancy laws. They arrest them, and put them in lock up over night. Lockup might suck, but it's warm, and dry.