What Would You Do? #RRBC @RRBC_Org @RRBC_RWISA @Tweets4RWISA

I turn on my television today and just happen upon a talk show discussing a homeless man who was cruelly subjected to ice water being dumped on him, as he slept in a Dunkin Donuts Shop.

Take a look at the video below.  I must warn you, though, if you have a heart, it’s not easy to watch:

As you can tell, not only was this poor man humiliated after having been physically assaulted with the water, but, the culprit then lashes out at him verbally.  Oh, and let me not forget to mention the ‘brilliant’ camera guy who’s recording the whole thing, tickled pink at the misfortune of this poor man.

My eyes filled with tears as I watched this man jump up from the shock of the cold, knock his cell phone over onto the floor (probably breaking it in the process), and then calmly and respectfully explain why he was asleep.  “It was an accident,” he said, only to be called a liar.

So, let me ask you:  What will it take for us to become a little more compassionate towards each other?  How much more hate of ourselves must we heap on to others, before we realize, it is that which we see in other’s situations that frightens us to the point of poor behavior?  But why?  What’s the motivation?

I believe it’s because we realize that we, too, could one day be in similar situations.  It could just as easily be us, sitting in a restaurant, hungry, too tired to stay awake – accidentally falling asleep.

The culprit, who in my opinion doesn’t look any more blessed than the victim, feels that by “shaming” this man, it somehow builds up his own situation… whatever that might be.

I am filled with questions today and I need you to help me come up with answers… ones that might make sense to me. I mean, help me to understand this – Why must we tear others down to make ourselves feel bigger?  Why must we make others hurt, to make ourselves feel stronger and more powerful?

I don’t know if you can answer those difficult questions for me, but, I have my own take on these kinds of situations, and they are lessons we all need to learn.

A man is no less a man simply because he has no bed of his own, or, a place to call home.  Even if he rides the bus, or stands outside of a store asking for food… shoes without holes in them, foreign to him… he is still a man.

What separates the men from the boys, is that the one who lives in a mansion, high on a hill, with the most beautiful mountainous view, and who also drives the finest cars… the one who so vigorously shakes the grime-filled hand of one whose clothes are dirty and tattered, when many others might look away and pretend to not see, this one not only gifts with food, but sits down next to him to eat, then calls him “friend” – that is a man.

What you saw in the video above were just two “boys” whose lives are probably worse than the man they victimized, and who were either never taught or never learned how to be real men.

Would you like to know what happened to those ‘boys’? Well, it’s been reported that Dunkin’ Donuts suspended them, pending an investigation.  Based on the video footage, I’m not quite sure why an investigation would be needed.  The not-so-smart miscreants recorded their crime for the entire world to see, so I say, suspension was much too good for them.

And, what of  the man who was victimized because he accidentally fell asleep in a donut shop?  Well, now he’s no longer nameless.  Per WKTV News Channel 2, his name is Jeremy Youngs.  It was also reported that an aunt of Mr. Youngs has said that he has mental challenges, which makes what those ‘boys’ did to him, even more sickening.

I learned a long time ago that you never know what someone else might be going through and it is because of that ignorance, that I try to be as decent a human being as is humanly possible.  I don’t turn my nose up at those who might appear to have less than I do.  I don’t frown upon those whose homes are not in as nice a neighborhood as mine, and I have never tried to make my worst day better by making someone else’s harder.

I don’t feel sorry for Jeremy Youngs.  I feel sadness for those ‘boys’ –  who at their ages, never learned how to be real men.  But, I feel the saddest for the children they might be father to now, or might one day become father to, because it is those innocent little souls who will watch and learn how not to be decent human beings, simply because of a sperm deposit.

So, can you answer my questions now?

Until next time…

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