Jim had been walking toward the edge of town when an idea struck him. He had to backtrack a little, made a sign on a piece of cardboard and stood out in the median of a busy street. His sign read: ‘This leopard has changed his spots. Please help. Need a suit and food.’ The first person who stopped at the light rolled down his window and spat on Jim, smirked and rolled the window back up. The light turned green and Jim stayed out of the way until it turned red again. A lady was holding a dollar bill out her mostly rolled up window. He got it and thanked her and moved on. The next man said, “I ain’t giving you any money. You’ll just do drugs with it.” After a couple of hours, Jim stopped to go to the bathroom and count his money. He was a little discouraged. There was $11.32. What was he thinking? This wasn’t going to work. Then he shook his head, as if to shake the negative voices out of it and walked back to the street corner. He hadn’t been there five minutes when Donald drove up. They talked for a minute while the light was red and then, with the light changing, Donald said, “Meet me across the street at Denny’s.”
Jim walked over, not knowing what to expect, but having a good feeling about this little meeting. Donald invited him to lunch to Jim’s delight. He told Jim to pick whatever he wanted. Jim, after deliberation, chose roast beef, salad, fried zucchini, dinner rolls and iced tea, with a hot fudge sundae for dessert! Donald asked Jim about his story, how he became homeless and what his occupation was before. It felt so good to talk to someone who listened intently to what he was saying and seemed genuinely interested, especially someone who could look beyond the dirty clothes and scruffy hair and see the real man. Donald was especially interested in how Jim had kicked the habit and was staying clean. Jim felt he could trust this man. He had worked with the sharks on Wall Street for so long that he was able to see people’s motives and Donald had a good, clean spirit.
Jim told Donald about June and her predictions. He told him how those predictions had troubled him, causing him to harbor ill feelings toward the elite and their callous attitudes toward the poor. Then, he told him how his partner had screwed him over and taken his wife to boot. He explained how his years of drug use after this befell him had rendered him incapable of any positive accomplishments and had only allowed him to hide from the future. So he was going to buy a suit from the goodwill and set out to not only change his ways, but see if he could help others!
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Donald had a big smile after hearing about Jim’s life and said he wanted to help in whatever way he could. “Do you know about the clinic, Jim?” Donald asked. “ It is the place where they take the drug addicts off of the streets to help them. My brother, Carl works there, serving the food to the patients. He found out the other day exactly how they are helping them. It is a clinic for assisted suicide/homicide. They are murdering all of the drug addicts and alcoholics who go there! Carl said the elderly and the disabled are next, if something isn’t done to stop them.”
Jim said, “I knew it!!!” and he tried to stand up, he was so excited but his knees caught on the underside of the table. He quickly sat back down and said, “The other day I saw a van driving around and they stopped at each tent. Two thugs went in and carried out anyone who was passed out and they stacked them over two high in the van and then on to the next tent. What can we do, Donald? Any idea?”
“I do have an idea, Jim. Let’s go get you a suit and talk some more while we shop,” Donald said.
Max attended a city council meeting after he got back into town from the cruise ship. After the city’s main business, the moderator of the meeting introduced Max and all eyes were glued on him. Max said, “I am impressed by the progress this city has made with the homeless situation. I am also looking forward to seeing this project completed. We do need to step up the operation. I am requesting that one more u-haul is rented to collect the addicts and also that all five of the 18 passenger vans be used at night when they are not needed to take people to the ships. We need to look in every nook and cranny of the city, so that no homeless person is overlooked!” At that the audience broke out in applause. “No need to applaud. There is another request I will be making. I want every radio station to make a public announcement every hour until the last of the homeless are off of the streets. It will simply say that we need every citizen of Portland to phone the nearest police station immediately when they see a homeless person. If we have all the eyes of all people in Portland watching for the homeless, it won’t be long before we reach our goal!” There was again resounding applause as Max finished his speech.