Hey friends, if you have a minute I would appreciate it if could you hear me out, because I need your help. When I walk to work in the morning I often see an old man on the corner of the street in the Financial District. He panhandles there, but he doesnt ask people for money, he simply stands as straight as he can there looking forward at the sidewalk holding out a cup for any help somebody cares to give. He doesnt look ashamed, just humble, and its always been obvious to me he has been a working man all his life (he looks like an old cowboy) and is now in this position for some reason. When I walk past Ill always give him money if I have it and he looks up with clear eyes and smiles and says thank you for the help and have yourself a good day and we part ways. A week ago I got tired of walking past and not doing anything (this man reminds me of my Grandfather and I dont know why he is having to panhandle) so I stopped on my way past and I asked him if I could take him to coffee and if he would tell me his story a bit. He agreed and we ended up talking for a couple of hours. It turns out he is from Alaska where he has been a Bush Pilot all his life and we swapped Montana and Alaska stories and laughed over coffee. He spoke with love about his wife whom he was married to for 35 years but lost a few years ago due to cancer. He is a Veteran and he is in SF for 9 months to have surgery on both his legs as this is the only place that they (the VA provides his health care) could do the surgery. He is to old and broken to find work now as a flight instructor and its pretty easy to piece together the rest of the story: his wife got sick and he spent everything he had to fight the cancer and the medical industry bankrupted him, left him with nothing and he was forgotten like so many others. Now he is just trying to get by and survive until he can collect his SS benefits in 2 months time. For the last 6 months he has been staying at Ocean Beach, sleeping on the beach in the blankets he has, panhandling to get by (he said he needs $61 a week to pay for his food, bus tickets, and new bandages that he has to change once a week) and most of the time he can make just about that much by panhandling 4 hours a day every weekday. The hospital is close to Ocean Beach so its convenient and he gets his PT there and can shower and get clean, and he comes downtown to panhandle for the little money he can get. He is tough as nails; I dont think I could stay at Ocean Beach every night. I know this happens all the time, but its not going to happen this time god dammit. Im going to help him, but I dont think I can do it all myself, so Im asking for your help. We can do much better for our Vets and this could be my Father or my Grandfather or any of us if we lost our family or support network. There but for the grace of god go I. Things we need: 1. Money. This obviously will make the next bit a lot easier for him. I would like to raise 2 months of living expenses to help him with warm food and shelter until he can collect his Social Security. If you would like to donate you can do so via Paypal: helpmichael2014@gmail 2. Shelter. Does anyone have an extra room? An RV? Know of cheap accommodations or need a house sitter? Im putting him up at my place while Im gone at Burning Man, so we really only need something for 5 or 6 weeks. 3. Friends. Stop by Montgomery and Post and say hi, go get coffee or lunch. Hes got great stories and you guys are all awesome so hed love to meet you. 4. Poetry Patrons. It turns out that he is one of the last great Cowboy Poets, and writes amazing poetry. This is one of the only only things he can do right now as work so it would be great if youd buy a Poem. I have originals and will be posting them soon for $100 each. They are beautiful. 5. People that know the social help system, it has been of not much help to him but maybe he didnt have the right advocate? Ok thanks if youre still with me, I know this is a long post and were all crazy busy but I also know youre the best group of people around and I think we can make a difference to here so thank you for listening.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:34:16 +0000
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