Homeless Gulf War Veteran saves life of shooting victim

Homeless veteran credited for saving life of shooting victim
by KING 5 News
Posted on July 2, 2012

A homeless veteran is credited for saving the life of a shooting victim in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood early Monday.

Seattle police said around 3 a.m. near 2nd Avenue and Bell Street, an argument between two men escalated into a fight, which ended with one man pulling out a gun and shooting the other man. According to officers, the victim ran a block before collapsing on the street.

A couple of blocks away, a homeless man known on the streets as Staff Sgt. Royal, a 10-year Army man and a veteran of the first Gulf War, heard the shots and came to the man’s rescue.
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Where has compassion gone in this country?

Matthew 25

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:31-46

I have this on the sidebar of this blog toward the bottom with a picture of Christ. It is there because this is there to remind a friend that he is never far from my thoughts and my prayers. It is also there because not following how Christ said we should treat people, is one of the biggest sins of all. Not only does it go against the Ten Commandments on how we are supposed to treat others, it goes against Christ Himself.

How is it that this country, so filled with churches and people screaming "this is a Christian Nation" when it suits them also allow so much suffering, heartless blindness and contempt for the least among us? Does any of what goes on really fit with what Christ taught? Hardly.

Consider the debate and the outrage caused by some zealots showing up screaming at Town Hall meetings over healthcare. Christ sent His Disciples out to heal the sick but some right here scream about not taking care of someone else needing care to stay alive. These same people are the same folks screaming about being pro-life, but I guess that only means when they can afford to go to a doctor when they're sick. Some people scream that they don't want the government messing around with their healthcare but when asked they say they get their care from Medicare or Medicaid. Some veteran scream along the same lines but they go to the VA for their care. These are government programs! Does this fit with being Christian?

Would they rather have some kind of system that is fair to all or see people die because they cannot afford to stay alive? Would they rather others lose their homes over healthcare bills they cannot pay because of a catastrophic illness and end up homeless? It happens all over the country when people just don't have enough coverage to meet the charges when they become ill. They lose their jobs and healthcare ends. Cobra costs so much money, people cannot afford it without a job to pay for it.

People all over the country also complain about the homeless and how they don't want them in their neighborhoods. They never stop to think the homeless used to be someone else's neighbor. They also don't stop to think that Christ commanded us to take care of them as our neighbor.

How can they go against what they are supposed to stand for as Christians? This is one of the many things I will never be able to understand. Is it because some of them believe that they were blessed by God and they don't need to take care of others? They have that entirely wrong and I doubt very much that Calvin ever once attempted to explain how Christ came into this earth to live as a poor man's son, grew up to be homeless and dependant upon the kindness of strangers to feed Him as He traveled this earth to teach us what God really expected out of His children. Do they think of this?

Where has compassion gone in this country? How can people claim they carry on the Heart of Christ within them and then do things totally against Him?

If they ever stop to read the Bible they may find themselves not so tempted to wave it in the face of someone else they want to teach a lesson to, I doubt they'd be filled with so much anger, hate, resentment and contempt they would ever speak out against those Christ clearly loved above the rich and the privileged. Yes, that's in the Bible too. These people may claim to be Christian but they are so far from what they are supposed to be, they no longer recognize who Christ was or what He taught.

Say any of this to them and they are only able to repeat what they read by others in the Bible. The problem with this is that if it does not agree with the Ten Commandments or the Red Letters of the Bible, then they are following the teachings of people just as imperfect as they are. All capable of misunderstanding and getting it wrong as they did. Abraham got it wrong after he decided to not wait for God to give him a son and he took his wife's servant. Moses got it wrong when he was put in the perfect place to free the Hebrews, but had to do it his way, more than once. David got it wrong many times and so did all the others in the pages of the Bible. Remind them of this when they quote you what people claim is the word of God because if it does not agree with the Ten Commandments of what Christ said, then it came from their own heads.

God did not dictate the Bible but He did inspire it, yet they cannot answer how so many other books were written by others not included in what we read. Maybe if they stopped talking so much and started to do more of what Christ actually did talk about, this country would be so much better and their hearts would be a lot more humble. Maybe crimes against the homeless would never happen because people would be taking care of them instead of avoiding them.

Attacks on Homeless Bring Push on Hate Crime Laws

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: August 7, 2009
WASHINGTON — With economic troubles pushing more people onto the streets in the last few years, law enforcement officials and researchers are seeing a surge in unprovoked attacks against the homeless, and a number of states are considering legislation to treat such assaults as hate crimes.


This October, Maryland will become the first state to expand its hate-crime law to add stiffer penalties for attacks on the homeless.

At least five other states are pondering similar steps, the District of Columbia approved such a measure this week, and a like bill was introduced last week in Congress.

A report due out this weekend from the National Coalition for the Homeless documents a rise in violence over the last decade, with at least 880 unprovoked attacks against the homeless at the hands of nonhomeless people, including 244 fatalities. An advance copy was provided to The New York Times.
read more here
Attacks on Homeless Bring Push on Hate Crime Laws
Linked from RawStory

Florida leads nation in attacks on homeless

Florida leads nation in attacks on homeless
Kate Santich Sentinel Staff Writer
April 30, 2008

Florida leads the nation in the number of violent attacks against the homeless -- a trend called "bum bashing" fueled largely by teenage boys targeting homeless men for sport -- according to a new study.

The increase nationwide in violent attacks, including a 40 percent rise last year in the number of homeless people killed by such violence, was detailed in a report released Tuesday by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

"If these brutal attacks were committed against any other religious or minority group to the same degree, there would be a national outcry," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the national coalition.

He and other advocates for the homeless urged federal and state lawmakers to classify violence against the homeless as a hate crime, which would carry stiffer penalties and help keep better track of the problem.

The report's authors say their numbers likely underestimate the problem because they had to rely on tracking down the details of individual news accounts of attacks against the homeless. Yet in recent years, those numbers dramatically outpaced all categories of hate crimes combined.

Last year alone, there were 29 attacks on homeless people in Florida -- six of them fatal, the report said. Only attacks perpetrated by people who were not homeless themselves were counted.
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Yes but, this is such a "Christian" state the legislators think we should all drive around with the cross on the ass end of our cars!

No it's not a joke.

Florida's 'I Believe' plates hit roadblock
Story Highlights
Religious license plates not in legislation passed Tuesday in Florida

Proposed "I Believe" plate would feature cross, stained-glass window

Similar plate being considered in South Carolina, recently won state Senate approval
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/30/license.plate.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

There was a time when being a Christian was something so sacred that it lived within us, in what we did and what we said as well as how we treated each other. No one needed to slap a fish on our cars or a bumper sticker to prove we were "Christians" at the same time we flipped someone off on the road, ran a red light because we were in a hurry or refused to stop and help someone who was unfortunate enough to break down in our lane.

There was a time when we really noticed the fact that Christ said out of his own mouth that he was the new covenant between God and man and he was dying for our sins because no one sin was worse than another but yet again Florida legislators would rather take the easy way out and appease fraudulent advertisers wanting to make a buck off a "show of faith" instead of actually supporting things that Christ stood for.

They should all be ashamed of themselves. I guess it wasn't bad enough the police were ordered to get the homeless off the streets and out of sight so that the tourist wouldn't have to see how little this state takes care of the most needy among us. Now we have one more sign of just how low these people are willing to sink.

Maybe they figure that homeless people cannot donate to their campaigns and the probability they would vote is far fetched but what they don't understand is the rest of us are paying attention and we're tired of being humiliated on the national news. This may be the land of Disney and amusement parks but this is not fantasy land. It's about time they started to act like the good Christians they pretend to be and actually live up to what Christ taught. Drive down any main street in Florida and you'll see more churches than you can count. Don't they understand that most of those churches have real Christians in them who actually do care about the homeless, the poor and the needy? Isn't that what being a Christian is supposed to be?


Chaplain Kathie Costos