They All Deserve Help

You may have heard about the homeless man with the "Golden Voice." His story went viral and he was flooded with offers of help. It's a nice, heartwarming story, but something about it bugged me and this morning while driving to work through the snow (again) I realized what it was. This man is getting help because of his talent and (to a lesser extent) because of his gracious demeanor. My question is...what if he hadn't had that voice? Let's say that rather than working on air at the radio station he'd been a file clerk, or a janitor, or a tech guy. Otherwise let's imagine the same exact situation: man starts dabbling in drugs, gets sucked into them, and loses his way. A nice man, eager for a fresh start. Now I ask you - would he have received the outpouring of help he has if he hadn't had such a media-friendly gift? I contend that the answer is no.

Which tells you everything you need to about how twisted our society has become. We only offer compassion and a helping hand to someone who can entertain us, who has a particular kind of gift (like putting a ball in a hoop or singing) or who have been born with money. The other 99.999% of people are told to "get a job" and "pull themselves up by their bootstraps."

I'm not saying that Ted Williams didn't deserve help. He most certainly did. But it's not because he has a great baritone. It's because he's a human being.