We were driving through the ghetto 30 minutes away from home (it's the outskirts of the nearest city). I sometimes drive through there for nostalgia because it feels like the past, since nothing has really changed (versus all the nice expensive areas that have been filled in with brand new corporate chains, etc.).

Anyway, we were driving under an overpass and I noticed somebody on the concrete area to the right, and right as I turned to look over it was this old man in a wheelchair. The look on his face made my heart sink; he just had this look of despair, and I'm talking this guy was set back really far to avoid being seen by traffic, so he wasn't trying to look forlorn to get money or something. Anyway, it made me feel so bad instantly because he reminded me of a long gone uncle of mine, which had the effect of making it feel personal. I just imagined my uncle sitting under there, imagining what his life must have been like, imagining what happened that led to this situation. So I flipped a bitch to go back under the overpass the other way and flip a bitch to go back next to him and stop to give him some money. I don't ever give anybody money, nobody. Whenever I see healthy looking homeless people begging I feel like somebody should put them in a wood chipper, one at a time, and feed the mulch to the others. Anyway, I put on my flashers and pulled over to the curb and tried to wave him over to hand him some cash, but then he was trying to signal to me with his face, which made me realize he couldn't move anything besides his face. So I got out and I walked over to him, left my wife in the passenger seat and told her to lock the door since we were in the ghetto. Don't worry, we both carry, always. I walked over to hand him the money and said something like "here you go man", and he said "no no I don't need any money, I just need help.", And when I asked him to clarify what do you need help with he explained that some metal bars from the wheelchair were stabbing into his side and leg because he was sort of like leaking out under the arms, since he had almost no control over anything below the neck. He had some control, which made me think it was probably diabetes or something, rather than a neck injury. Anyway, I helped him get adjusted and wedged a pillow and bag and stuff into the sides of the wheelchair that helped him stay in place longer (his idea). And he said thank you, I forced him to take the money and he literally wouldn't take it, so I literally just put it on his better hand that he could move a little and told him "this is $40, get some food". He was like "oh my God", and the money just sort of sat there on his hand. I said "have a good night", which I realized immediately was the weirdest thing to say. When we left I called the police to ask if they had somebody who could help him and the officer who called me back told me that they help him often when he gets stuck in his wheelchair all wrong, etc.

Anyway, I'm not writing this to brag "I gave somebody money!" (I make a lot of money and I never give anything to anyone, so I'm not charitable - I'm Scrooge McDuck). The point is that after we left the situation, for the first time ever, I felt like our country was lost. We've got wealthy college students getting $10,000 for free, filthy fucking mongrels and illegal immigrants getting free fucking money every day all over the place, scum pieces of shit in corporate America lobbying for more free money for their customers, and here we have some guy who probably worked his fucking ass off his whole life and then something happened, maybe his wife died, who fucking knows, but this guy is just sitting in a wheelchair under a bridge, waiting to die. I've seen a lot of homeless people, I've seen a lot of helpless people, but something about this guy and his situation and the look on his face when we drove by, the feeling of despair that I had for him, it made me hate what America has become for the first time ever. Fuck this shit about how "America is great and the Democrats are the bad guys", etc. We are all America. We let this fucking shit happen. We did this. A country with great freedoms and 450 million guns allowed a few petty tyrants, with only a few tens of thousands in their corrupt pretorian guard, ruin our country completely, without so much as a whimper from anyone. We all fucking dropped the ball, because we were so convinced that orange man was gonna save us, and now all of your offspring and everybody you know will pay the price dearly, most likely with their lives, in the coming decade. I said "your", because I don't have any kids. I'd like to think it's because I was smart enough to know the direction the world was going in, but the reality is I was always too selfish to give up being a kid to raise kids.

Anyway, I don't mean to make anybody depressed, but I feel like a lot of us are not facing the reality; it doesn't matter who's right or wrong. What matters is who wins, and we are not winning.