Monday, April 27, 2009

Shouting nonsense

Last question of the day...why is it that people in the cities(homeless looking folks) tend to shout at no one?  I didn't hear this stuff in little ol' Janesville. It's seemed pretty "normal" when I lived in San Francisco and downtown in San Diego while I was there.  I heard it in Chicago and Milwaukee too.    

The woman was shouting to no one this afternoon.  She appeared to be shouting at a woman walking away.   I was concerned at what had just occurred, thinking I had missed an altercation.  I accidentally made eye-contact with the shouter and I witnessed the fear in her eyes.  It was then that I realized she was not shouting at the woman walking away.  She was just shouting.  The man shouting last Friday only shouted when someone was on his side of the street, on his block.  I can only imagine he feels better being the aggressor, all bark, rather than being bumped into for not being seen.

Lest we forget, there are people in need among us.

6 comments:

  1. I'm not sure why the random shouters don't seem to wander in small towns. Maybe in a smaller place people would more readily get the person to wherever they needed to be to deal with the issue. I think some are suffering from some form of schizophrenia. It is rarely very rewarding to strike up a conversation with the shouters or to shout "hell yea!!" and such. I've tried.

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  2. Many are very ill. I had one lady ask me for money in the parking lot in the parking lot of our grocery store and I gave her a 20 and asked her to tell me how this came to pass.

    She was honest. Bad choices in life. I gave her a hug and told her that she could still make a difference and that I would pray for her.

    She sat down and cried after that interaction.

    The hungry and homeless are people too although you are running in to the ones who suffer with schizophrenia without a doubt.

    They will converse with you although they will fight more quickly as they live in a very tough unforgiving world.

    Love,
    Bobby

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  3. I had expected anger in her eyes...I was surprised by her fear.

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  4. I love you Bobby.. you're an awesome individual.

    I think maybe it has to do with all the noise in a bigger city?? (in addition to the obvious mental illnesses..) denver is hella loud. we had homeless people in oklahoma city too, but it wasn't as loud in the homeless areas as it is in denver.

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  5. We have a shouter or two here, but most of our single conversationalists are generally low volume.

    The shouting is a symptom of the mental issues, not a character feature of the individual, methinks. That might explain the fear instead of the expected anger.

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