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Date:
January 17th, 2008
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Title: Homeless on the subway
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I tried
to ignore her, but then the song on my MP3 player switched to
Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” The lyrics are so
intoxicatingly sympathetic that I couldn’t just turn my back. It was
difficult to look away. Her pleads are too powerful to overlook, but
I am still wondering in the back of my mind whether or not her lines
of despair are genuine. She claims she has three small children but
where are they? She’s looking for work but what can she possibly do?
She asks for a dollar or a candy bar, but will that be enough for
three kids? If I were to give her money, and she used it for drugs,
gets high and kills someone, aren’t I responsible in some way? She
looks dismal, smells terrible but I cannot feel completely
sympathetic for her. "…..as I turn up he collar on my favorite
winter coat... Michael’s lyrics aren’t helping me much, so I
cave. I reach into my pocket to pull out a couple dollar bills to
drop in her bucket. Then the song stops. My battery dies and I still
have several hours outdoors without music. I have just two dollars
left. I needed to make a decision. She was getting closer and closer
by the second. Luckily fate would interfere, the doors opened the
she stepped off the train leaving my two dollars in my hand.
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