What time do the homeless usually go to sleep?

Quote TomTomBinks:

Actually, she came on here asking for advice as to when homeless people on the street are likely to turn in for the night so she can give them something to eat before they go to sleep. Her opening post was immediately met with sarcasm, and when she later said her activity was religiously motivated, at least in part, the outright nastiness started.

You are free to believe or not believe in a deity, of course, but up until now I was unaware that there were A2Kers who were looking forward to the homeless on the street going hungry.

Her initial post was met with sarcasm? Whose?

Are you telling me that you can read the original post with a straight face? "What time do the homeless usually go to sleep?" Are you freakin' kidding me?
What time do paraplegics normally go to bed? How about architects? Normally.
You see this isn't a serious request for information, it's an introduction to her self promotion of her selfless act.
How about if I make a grand announcement that I will be so generously donating one crisp new five dollar bill to the Salvation Army this holiday season, and could someone please advise me on the best time of day to do so. Should I go early, or around lunch time, or maybe toward evening would be best. Oh and can anyone provide me with a list of locations near me that I can go to the nearest one.
I hope she does feed some people and give them a little comfort, but I think she should shut up about it.

Can I read her opening post with a straight face? Lessee, here's her opening post:


Yes, I can read that with a straight face, what's your problem? And the question is not stupid, since she is looking for the type of homeless people who actually are on the street and are possibly so depressed that they don't even bother going down to the soup kitchen, she decided to bring the meal to them. Give them something substantial to eat before they go off to face a possibly cold night outdoors. Let me emphasize this, this is not unusual. There are people who do this kind of outreach. And good for them.

It was only in response to someone talking about danger-and yes, I suppose there might some risk involved-that asmitha brought up her religious convictions. And she was willing to let the religious talk go at that until you and chai2 tried to derogate her for showing kindness and charity because it was, (gasp!), religiously motivated. How dare she.

So no, I don't find her question stupid in the least, at least asmitha specified what kind of homeless people she was aiming for, (those actually on the street, as opposed to those in shelters or in a program with indoor overnight facilities). Her question made sense if you read her post. People in the same situation tend to do things the same way. Asking what time people living on the street tend to go to sleep is no more absurd than asking what time do most baseball fans show up at the park before the game.

Take a look at page 1. While the idiiocy posts did not start until after the O.P.'s second post, they did occur.

I take the poster at their word when asking the question and found nothing foolish about it. For those who don't have any real concept of a homeless person's life, it was a fair question. The poster has seen a need and would like toitoi help, why chop them up for it? People should either answer respectfully or don't respond at all.

Second post? Nope! Try "third". Ekename and I both gave serious answers.

At that point she had received three serious answers. She responded by claiming we were depicting the homeless as psychopaths. This was after I told her I had actually been homeless. It was all I could do to keep from responding harshly. But I was able to.

The antics by certain liberals in this thread have convinced me Jonah Goldberg's book was well-titled.

And which alleged liberals might you be referring to Kolyo? Be aware before answering that some who are tagged as liberals aren't.

Quote Kolyo:


First response: Jespah tells her to work with an established organization because of the danger.

Second response: Ekename says to work within an established network.

Third response: You say that when you were homeless you would not accept food from somebody not affiliated with an established organization.

The poster asked for advice on doing out-on-the-street hot meal outreach for the homeless, and she was basically told not to do it because of the danger. While the advice was well-meaning, they were trying to discourage her because of the perceived danger and so asmitha made clear she was not going to be afraid. These posts are not the ones I particularly take issue with.

The posts I'm talking about were bychai2 and TomTom, with ekename's posting of a crusader singing Onward Christian Soldiers thrown in. Chai2 and TomTom portray the charitable woman as quite daft, a danger to herself and also one hell-bent on pushing her religion onto others.

I have no idea what, if any, preaching asmitha plans to do when distributing the food. However, it is plain by their posts that if asmitha so much as says a single "Jesus loves you" while giving a hungry man a homemade chicken pot pie, TomTom and chai2 would consider it a gross invasion of the homeless man's privacy. Religious groups historically have given the needy help. That's what asmitha wants to do and I think she should be encouraged, not made the target of snide jokes.

Some of the religious types are okay. Especially when they have the ability to to listen and find out what the homeless really need. Most people have a plan already for how they will get food, but they find themselves stuck in miserable wet and smelly socks.

There was one woman at the day shelter who handed out socks as long as we joined her in a prayer circle. I had the soup kitchen for meals, but I needed socks badly so i joined her in the circle once. It felt good, just joining hands with people to share hope, and gratitude for the little we had. It inspired me to attend the unitarian service the following week.

You see my point about advertising her good deed, right? Doesn't this bother anyone? A selfless act is admirable, and I admire the OP for wanting to do good works, but when she promotes the act for all the world, it loses it's charitable quality and just becomes self-aggrandizement. So I had some fun with it.

By the way, if anyone is interested, I was homeless myself. It was only for about two weeks way back in the 80's but I got a good taste of it.

I can't even read through any more of your obsessive ramblings that basically boils down to the fact that you don't think what I, and some others have posted was "nice".

I very clearly gave my response to all your complaints before......Tough.

You and someone else gave her serious answers in your opinion. So great. What the hell else do you want?

You don't like what I'm saying right now.....Tough.

What the f*ck do you want exactly? You don't like what I said. Aknowledged.

Anything else?

Besides, I don't think you've ever even spoken to anyone for whom you're adovocating, or if you have, you treated them like you have here. Like they are just some word, putting each person in the same pigeon hole.

Christ almighty blickers. A few hours ago I was swimming for an hour with a couple of guys who haven't lived in a house for a long time. I've known them for years. They aren't "the homeless". They are Mike and Joe. Mike will tell you right now he's half nuts. I like him emmensely, and he likes me. Joe is a curmudgeon and like to act like he doesn't like anyone. Mike teases him constantly that he's going to "take Joe's bench". That's the bench that Joe sits on almost every day, reading history books, especially about ancient Rome, and anything about international politics he can get his hands on. He will debate you to the death on any subject you care to bring up. But, if Mike ever sees anyone heading towards that bench when Joe isn't there, Mike will fend them by putting some of his belongings on it, because "That's Joe's bench." Joe doesn't like me anymore because last year he had a seizure, and I was the only one who saw him start to go down. It created quite a commotion once I got the lifeguards attention. Joe swears up and down he did no such thing as have a seizure. It was only last week I started to get back into his good graces, because he included me in an argument about Trump and abortion. If he has another seizure, I'll make another commotion.

Because of the hour of the day, a lot more people, a dozen or more, were coming and going. Enough people walking back to use the shower facility and then leaving to know that this was their source for baths. I knew 1/2 of them by sight, and half of that number by name. Some don't have jobs, some do. The one's that do have jobs or at least day labor bring their tools and **** into the shower with them.

All these people, dozens and dozens that come and go all day long are self policing. They have a really good deal having a pool to swim in, facilities to bathe, and most patrons of the pool that don't treat them like a word, and that they are all alike.

The ones who do bitch are people who show up for a swim every once in a while, and aren't regulars. Like they think they're going to catch some disease by looking at some guy who's minding his own beeswax, sitting in his car listening to the radio, or hanging out under the trees, right along with everyone else. Just like they are people or something, and not "the homeless"

Each person has their own story. Many are happy, some are depressed. Some have health problems, some don't. If someone shows up acting wrong in any way, they are told they better move on until they can act right, and not screw things up for everybody.

I've worked at a homeless shelter downtown when they were doing some needed renovations. For 2 months I got to know everyone who came through the place because I was the one handing them towels and soap, when they had to take their showers down in the parking garage, where they had set up temporary facilities. It was cold, got smoke filled, and I didn't much like it. So what, someone had to do it. I did it though because there was security staff all around, and I was safe. Wouldn't have done it otherwise.

You kind of get to know someone when you've just handed them a bar of soap and a towel, and he's standing around with his shirt half off, despite the cold.

There's another guy that hangs out a few blocks from me. I've seen him around for 10 years or more, and I still don't know his name, nor has he ever spoken a word that I could hear. But, I feel really priviledged because I'm apparantly one of the few people that he will half raise his hand to in greeting when I walk or drive by. He usually turns away from people who try to even say hi. You know why he gives me that half hand? Because I basically left him the f*ck alone, throwing a "hi" or my own half raised hand to him whenever I walked by, with no expectations of anything on his part. He's a traveler, never standing him in one place more than a minute. Just a couple times since he's been acknowledging me I've been able to get him to stay in one place (relatively) by saying "I'm going to get a cup of coffee, want one?" Then I do just that, going into the Starbucks, and just handing him a grande with some sugar packets. I don't even wait to see what he does with it.

I don't know his story. I'm curious, but not enough to disrespect him. It seems he's got some type of place, his clothes change with the seasons. He actually dresses with incredible flair. He's just the type that can carry anything off.

I wasn't going to talk about any of this, and I'm sure not going to share any more just to prove to you I know anything about the subject. Obviously my stories are anecdotal.

But Blickers, you seriously need to take the stick out of your ass, and clean your ears with it, because you just keep making **** up as you go along. Now you've switched, God knows why, to quoting and giving your armchair quarterback pronouncements. You must have spent a significant amount of time going back an analyzing all this. But hey, that your business. I'm going to get a coffee, want one?

I don't care if you don't like what I had, or have to say.

You're not any better or worse than any other person on this thread, and you can say whatever you want, regardless of how wrongheaded, naive and just plain dumb I think you're being.

You, and another I won't mention, don't have the priviledge of telling me, or anyone, what I, or they, "should" do or say. Police yourself. That's enough of a job.

Now come on back and tell me how I'm just talking about my own personal experiences. I pretty much can assume you haven't read that I've beaten to the chase by acknowlegding that. Just like you're convinced for some idiotic reason that I said people without a home only have slight problems, and have busy social calendars.

I guess so. Mostly I saw a person, who when three of us offered her some good serious advice, threw it back in our faces. What happened after that didn't bother me at all.

I agree with both of you Koylo.

Something I mentioned before....the OP said that this was something she'd done before. So what was the purpose of her question, even if it make any sense, anyway?

This person just came here with her self congratulatory, made up question, nor expecting anyone to tell her anything other than what she wanted to hear. So, she cut and run.

Quote TomTom:

Nonsense, asmitha asked for info about the best time to give homeless people a pre-bed meal. She didn't even bring up religion until the issue of danger was mentioned by others, and even then she didn't dwell on it, but you and others seized upon it as something to repeatedly mock. You're the one who keeps bringing up asmitha's religion, Tom, she barely mentioned it.

Nor did she aggrandize herself at all, she made one or two religious statements when the subject of personal danger was mentioned. Face it Tom-you don't like religion, which is your right, but you are seizing on it to try to make asmita seems uncharitable. When there is no evidence she is anything but someone who wishes to go a good deed for some people who clearly need one.

It's about time this topic was put to bed.