15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

whispering when I said, “Why in the heck would you want to serve a country
that has allowed you to end up in this kind of situation?”
You know what he said next, Ellen? His eyes grew sad and he said, “It’s not
this country’s fault my mother doesn’t give a shit about me.” Then he reached
up and turned off my lamp. “Goodnight, Lily,” he said.
I didn’t sleep much after that. I was too mad. I’m not even sure who I’m
mad at. I just kept thinking about our country and the whole world and how
screwed up it is that people don’t do more for each other. I don’t know when
humans started only looking out for themselves. Maybe it’s always been this
way. It made me wonder how many people out there were just like Atlas. It
made me wonder if there were other kids at our school who might be homeless.
I go to school every day and internally complain about it most of the time,
but I’ve never once thought that school might be the only home some kids have.
It’s the only place Atlas can go and know he’ll have food.
I’ll never be able to respect rich people now, knowing they willingly choose to
spend their money on materialistic things rather than using it to help other
people.
No offense, Ellen. I know you’re rich, but I guess I’m not referring to people
like you. I’ve seen all the stuff you’ve done for others on your show and all the
charities you support. But I know there are a lot of rich people out there who are
selfish. Hell, there are even selfish poor people. And selfish middle-class people.
Look at my parents. We aren’t rich, but we certainly aren’t too poor to help
other people. Yet, I don’t think my dad has ever done anything for a charity.
I remember one time we were walking into a grocery store and an old man
was ringing a bell for the Salvation Army. I asked my dad if we could give him
some money and he told me no, that he works hard for his money and he wasn’t
about to let me give it away. He said it isn’t his fault that other people don’t
want to work. He spent the whole time we were in the grocery store telling me
about how people take advantage of the government and until the government
stops helping those people by giving them handouts, the problem won’t ever go
away.
Ellen, I believed him. That was three years ago and all this time I thought
homeless people were homeless because they were lazy or drug addicts or just
didn’t want to work like other people. But now I know that’s not true. Sure,
some of what he said was true to an extent, but he was using the worst-case
scenarios. Not everyone is homeless because they choose to be. They’re homeless
because there isn’t enough help to go around.