Blog post

Ashamed to be a New Yorker today!
Posted by Chris McGurk on September 13 2007

I take the subway to work everyday to work just like countless droves of my fellow New Yorkers. I know that all of us in the city are used to the panhandlers and con artists that patrol the subways and trains looking for their next hapless victim. It is hard to tell the difference between those that are truly in need and those that are just out to take you for a ride. I am guilty just like all the rest, rolling my eyes and saying yeah right, whenever someone goes into their speech of why they are asking for money, food or why they are asking for help. This morning I was on a downtown express 4 train when a man stood up, introduced himself, apologized for interrupting our commute and asked for food. The difference came when he said that he was a US Army Veteran of desert Storm and that he has recently fallen on hard times; "Michael" finished his speech and began walking the train. I stopped him when he got to me and asked him some questions that only a Veteran would know. I wanted to make sure that I was not being taken for a "ride"; he answered all my questions like only a vet could and would have. I gave him all the money I had in my pocket, told him I was a Vet myself and asked him to try to stay safe and I hope things will soon turn for the better. I watched him walk away and this is when I became enraged, if I may borrow a phrase from another blogger and member vet Mike Zacchea, I want to scream and eat glass and gouge my eyes out with a rusty nail. I could not believe what I was seeing; I watched as people on the train lowered their heads, shifted their eyes and did not offer a single strand of help. I could not believe that there were only two of us on the train that was willing to give a veteran a hand and talk to him. I am ashamed today to be a New Yorker, what is it saying about our city, a city that was the catalyst for the War on Terror, when a majority of people wont even look a struggling veteran in the eye. I hope that if you were on the downtown 4 express train around 1030 this morning and you were in the car with us that you go home tonight and feel sick with yourself for not helping a person who helped secure the civil liberties and freedoms you enjoy on a daily basis. Truly sickening