A young homeless man's life is cut short. This is his update, as told by one of his friends on the street.
We had to say good-bye to one of our own several days ago, and my heart is shattered with grief.
I cannot believe that he is gone.
Charlie-The-Crazy is now in Heaven (or, at least I'm hoping he is ...). He died on Monday of last week: he was hit by a speeding car. I saw it happen with my very own eyes; I knew he was hurt bad when he didn't get back up. He just lay there, on the ground, like a dicarded pile of bloody rags.
He was only in his middle twenties. Too damn young.
Charlie had a lot of problems, among them being homeless (like me), and having severe mental illness. We suspect he had schitzophrenia: he often talked to himself and didn't make a lot of sense whatsoever. He often talked to not only himself, but to imaginary people we couldn't even see, and when he did talk to us (or real people, in general), his talk was pure gibberish.
We didn't know what his last name was until the funeral (his last name was Bates); we just knew him as "Charlie-The-Crazy", because he WAS.
Even though he was crazy, Charlie was a good kid. He really never said anything bad about anybody, and he was the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his skinny back if he could (sometimes he did if he saw a fellow homeless person shivering in the cold) or get someone a nice, piping hot cup of coffee from the local Starbucks up the way (he always found money, it seems).
Now Charlie Bates (aka "Charlie-The-Crazy") is gone, and we, his buddies, his protectors, are left wondering what we could have done to prevent the accident from happening in the first damn place or if we could have done more to help him while he was still alive.
I do know this much: I haven't slept good since seeing Charlie get slammed by that car; I see the accident over and over again in my head, and I often wake up screaming his name out loud, sweating profusely, and gasping for breath. I guess the scene will stay with me forever; Lord knows, I will never forget it as long as I shall live.
While Debtors prisons no longer exist, many people continue to be persecuted for crimes related to poverty or inability to repay money owed to municipalities. This practice remains in an injustice that needs to be rectified.
Black white (well sort of pinkish) etcetera, Christian Muslim etcetera, Hetero-Homo-Metro Sexual, Physical, Mental, Ow! Includes all human rights violations I could think of.
While Debtors prisons no longer exist, many people continue to be persecuted for crimes related to poverty or inability to repay money owed to municipalities. This practice remains in an injustice that needs to be rectified.
