What do you do?

I walk the dog once or twice a day. I take him on a circular route that goes south on the street. Sidewalks are patchy afterthoughts in our neighborhood. They'll go for half a block stop then pick up again on the other side of the street. This street I'm on curves in into a Y intersection. It goes around with a church on the left and right. Anyway, At the base of the Y is a recently reopened Chinese buffet. Behind it is a dumpster.

This evening I crossed the street from one sidewalk to another and as a I approached the dumpster I heard a loud voice talking. I thought, oh, it's some guy, probably an employee, talking on his cell phone. I could barely see his head when the dog stopped to do his business. Dog finished and we continued. 

Normally I throw the bag in their dumpster but decided to be polite and go across the street and put in another dumpster. As I passed him it became clear he was a crazy homeless person digging and eating out of the dumpster. He wasn't dressed too badly, shorts, light jacket, backpack and baseball cap. And he was about my age. I decided to give him a few bucks. I don't do this very much and I rarely tell anyone I give money to the homeless. I don't do it for the praise. I'm really not that generous. Just trying to help out someone down on their luck. I pulled out a five and walked back to the guy.

He was chowing down. He was eating something with great relish. I don't know what. I didn't want to know what. I said hey could you use some cash. He turned and said sure. He pulled his hand away from his mouth. It was covered in goop. Both hands were covered in goop. He took the cash and said thanks. And went back to his meal.   

And as I walked away, all I could think about was my friends who voted for Republicans to put them back into power and how those friends constantly argue that we should give tax cuts for the rich. And now the Republicans are dead set on extending Bush's tax cuts for the rich. I thought we've already seen what happens. These past eight years, the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the middle class is disappearing. What fucking planet do I live on? Did I enter some alternate evil universe? Here we are in the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and we have these huge deficits and huge need to help Americans at the end of their ropes. And the Democrats are too cowardly to stand up to the Republicans.