For some reason I keep coming across interesting pieces about homeless individuals. Here's another and I have one more to go, for now at least.From NPR...
Every day on NPR, listeners hear funding credits — or, in other words, very short, simple commercials.
A few weeks ago, a new one made it to air: "Support for NPR comes from the estate of Richard Leroy Walters, whose life was enriched by NPR, and whose bequest seeks to encourage others to discover public radio."
NPR's Robert Siegel wondered who Walters was. So Siegel Googled him.
An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission.
But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless.
I remember as a child a story about a guy who used to panhandle in front of a major department store during the summer then spend the winters in his house in Florida. Who knows whether that story or others like it are true, the fact remains that for 99.99% of homeless people they are poor, disabled or mentally ill and in need of help.
1 comment:
Yes, the story re department store panhandler is true. I remember him. He had a monkey with a cute little suit that held a cup for the money. He was legless. When he died the WP did a story about him and the fact that he was wealthy and did indeed spend winters in FL
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