Me and Nikki have a tradition where we go to Denny's on the 12th of every month because that's our "monthly anniversary." I know that sounds lame, but it's nothing big, just a tradition of ours.

Anyway, this past 12th, we went to Denny's at night rather than in the morning like we usually do. When we got there, there was a homeless man standing outside asking people who went by if they could buy him a cup of coffee. It's probably important to note that at the time, it was probably 45-50 degrees outside. The man really didn't care so much about the coffee than he did about the fact that he would be able to sit inside if he were a customer.

He wasn't asking for money, he wasn't asking for anything big, just a simple cup of coffee so he could sit inside away from the cold.

Well, when me and Nikki were going in, he asked us, and Nikki gave me a "you better not" look, most likely because it was interfering with our monthly tradition. I did anyway. Normally I wouldn't have given a homeless person money or anything. I never have been one to do that. But the man simply wanted to come inside and be warm. I was quite amazed that the people wouldn't just let him come inside anyway.

Anyway, he came inside with us and sat near us after he got his coffee and minded his own business. He was writing in this notepad he had and he wasn't bothering anybody. I was pretty amazed at the looks people were giving him and it was just disgusting. There was this family of 3 sitting right next to us and him, a father and two daughters, all incredibly obese, pigging out and making jokes through whispers about the guy. When we had first walked in the door with him, the Denny's employees gave us this "why did you do this?" look. Well, they ended up not really saying anything about it and letting him stay, probably because they knew we would not be staying if he couldn't.

A little before we got our food, I went and sat with him for about a minute and asked him if he'd like some soup, chicken noodle that day. At first he seemed like he didn't want it because we had already been nice to him in the first place, but I reassured him that it was absolutely no bother and that we had no problem at all doing it, so I had our waitress bring him soup. You should have seen her face when I asked her.

Anyway, she brought our food out and brought him his soup. Unfortunately, she had only gotten him like half a bowl of soup, and hadn't brought the bread that was supposed to come with it. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to embarass the guy any more than I'm sure he was already. He attacked the soup and it was gone in like a minute, and then he went on writing in his notepad.

My meal was pretty big, I got the all-star slam or whatever, comes with coffee, juice, bacon/sausage, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. I had finished all but the pancakes and felt pretty satisfied, and decided I would give him my pancakes, partially to make up for the fact that the lady didn't bring him all of what I asked her to(I even had to pay full price for it, not that that really mattered.) So, as we were leaving, I gave him my pancakes and wished him well, and he thanked us, and off we went.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet was the fact that the man was very clearly mentally ill. When I sat by him, I looked at his notebook to see what he was writing, and it was just complete randomness, a lot of it having to do with chickens and other birds. It made no sense at all. Also, when she brought his soup, he started making jokes about the soup being scared because it's chicken soup, which does make sense but it didn't seem completely like a joke.

Something a lot of people don't seem to know is that a pretty large number of homeless people are mentally ill. About 25%, in most places. This is because a lot of homeless people originate from mental hospitals, and when they get "released," they get released onto the streets.

I understand that most people think that homeless people just want money to buy alcohol and drugs, and I'm very willing to admit that this is, for the most part, true. I would say about 9 times out of 10, if you give a homeless person money, they will buy alcohol or drugs with it. This is partially why I don't give homeless people money, but I'm not completely against the idea, and I probably would if I could afford to.

See, my logic behind this, is that even if I know that the guy is going to buy drugs or alcohol with the money I give them, I know at least that they will be doing so in a safe way. I would much rather them take my offered money to buy drugs or alcohol than them rob someone or do something to endanger themselves, which most likely they will. Most likely, regardless of whether or not I give them money, they will get their drugs or alcohol somehow. At least this way they will be safer doing so.

Anyway, back to the homeless guy. The entire thing cost me a whole 3-4 dollars. His coffee was a buck, and his soup was like 2-3 bucks. This is not a lot of money. It's not even a problem for me, and I'm a poor college student. 3-4 bucks to this guy was a lot more than it would have been to me. It kept him out of the cold and got him some food in his stomach.

I think something I would really like to emphasize is how people reacted to him and such. I found it quite unpleasant. It really made me lose some faith in humanity (not that I had much or any to begin with.) I know that a lot of people just passed by this guy disregarding him, when all he wanted was to be out of the cold. We had watched for a few minutes as one person after another would just ignore the guy, not even wishing him good luck or anything. It seemed like people treated him as less than human, as if he was worth nothing and he should just go away and disappear. It seems like people just assume the worst when it comes to homeless people. "They're where they are for a reason." They must have screwed up in life, or done a lot of drugs, or what have you. Even if these things are true, does that mean someone deserves to be in that situation? Do they deserve to be treated as less-than-human? It took a whole 3 dollars to give this guy a bit of comfort that he very much appreciated.

Anyway, I guess this is my second rant of the day. Just like last time, hope it makes sense.