If you are a New Yorker like me, there is one thing that you encounter almost every day – but never want to see. It’s something that is as much a part of New York as the Yankees – but hardly as popular. It’s something that is all over New York, from the Battery to the Upper East Side – but no one wants. And worst of all – it’s something that people know is out there – but do nothing about. I’m talking about homelessness.

I was on the #2 train today on the way home from work. As I was reading my latest Batman comic, I saw a woman come through the doors from the next car. She had to be close to forty years old. She was dressed in very dirty, ripped clothes and she looked tired and hungry. In a pitifully embarrassing voice, she said, “I’m sorry to have to bother anyone, but could someone lend me a quarter or fifty cents so I can get something to eat?” – No one answered.

As she made her way through the car with her unwashed hand extended in the hopes that someone would drop a quarter in it – no one looked at her. Instead, they kept reading their books, or pretending to be asleep, or just looking away. I gave her fifty cents and I think one other person did too, but the other fifty or so people just ignored her desperate plea – how selfishly arrogant.

Let me ask you a question. Could you possibly imagine being homeless? Having absolutely no place to go home to and having no money to buy clothes, food, or medicine? Not being able to shower, brush your teeth or use a toilet? And worst of all – being ignored every time you asked for help?

Homelessness is probably the worst thing that could happen to someone. There are times in my life when I have had my phone, gas and electric shut off because I could not afford to pay them – but I still had a roof over my head. I could not fathom what could have happened to someone that was so devastating that they wound up on the street with no home. What a sad and depressing life that must be.

As a New Yorker all my life, I have always seen homeless people. I used to see a guy who “lived” in the Court Street and Montague Street subway station when I worked at Independence Savings Bank back in 1993. He would just sit there between the two stairwells as the hundreds of people passed him by as if he was not even there. He would never say a word, never ask for money – and never even move. I always wondered what was going through his mind as he would watch people rush past him to go home – a place he could never go. Recently, I had to go over there again, so I took the N train to that same station seven years later – and he was still sitting there. Same clothes, same position – and same look on his face. The only thing that was different were the people that were rushing by him to get home as if he did not exist.

Now, I take the #2 train to Chambers Street. There is a woman who “lives” there too. She is I’d say mid thirties and she sits in basically the same place and gets basically the same reaction from the commuters that the guy at Court Street gets. One day, I saw her sitting there and in front of her was a coffee cup with some change in it. Since I got paid that day. I stopped and gave her a five dollar bill. An amount that I spend on such insignificant things as a cigar, a comic book or a pack of cigarettes for Sandy – when she saw what I gave her – she reacted as if I gave her a one hundred dollar bill – as I said “you’re welcome” to the appreciative woman – I wondered when the last time it was that she saw a five dollar bill.

I remember another time when I worked at the Marketeer, I received a letter in the mail from a woman who asked if we donated any presents to underprivileged people, because she was poor and unable to give her three sons Christmas presents. I brought the letter to the publisher, a thirty-something millionaire and asked him if we could give one of the many gifts he gives to his staff every Christmas to this needy family – he told me to throw the letter away. So, instead of doing what he asked, I decided to add her three sons to my Christmas list. I went to Sears and bought each child a $50 gift certificate. A few days after Christmas, I received a thank you card from the three sons thanking me for my gift. The youngest one wrote that he would use the $50 to, “buy something warm for the winter.” – needless to say, I was the one who felt warm. It felt so good to know that I made a difference in the life of those three little boys – even if our “generous” publisher didn’t think they were worth it – I did.

I am as generous as I can be to homeless people for a number of reasons. First and foremost, God has always blessed me throughout my life, and the way I show Him thanks for His generosity is to give back to those that are less fortunate then I am. Secondly, I have a home that has heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summertime. I know how brutally cold the streets are in the winter and how blistering hot they are in the summer – and I have a place to go to when it gets too hot or too cold. And the biggest reason, I don’t know what I would do if I was homeless and hungry and as I asked for help, got completely ignored and ridiculed by my fellow man…

Do you?