Language barrier

This is on a construction site near my office:



So, do you have to demonstrate that you can sign in complete sentences? Or will a simple "How are you" suffice?

Walk on by

The young man seemed close to frantic as he hurried across Las Vegas Boulevard downtown, one block north of Fremont Street, his arms held open in a pleading gesture.

"Please, gentlemen!" he cried. "You've got to help me!"

There was something about him that made me disinclined to acquiesce to his request. He was a little too wide-eyed and slack-jawed to be functioning normally, so I walked past him, only to be stuck at the corner waiting for a "walk" sign.

"Don't hide," I heard him say behind me. "You don't need to hide." I'm not sure if he was talking to me or the other guy at the corner, but we weren't hiding. He could've been talking to himself. Then he asked for help again: "A cell phone! I need the police!"

Maybe he's got a real problem, I thought as I crossed the street. But look! His problem's solved. There were two police cruisers waiting at the light, and as I walked north the police drove south, right toward the man in need.

He did not, however, flag them down. Ha! Big surprise there, I thought.

But then I thought about another troubled man I met briefly about three years ago. He, too, was very worried about something, and even went so far as to place an ad in the local paper asking for help identifying the people he said were spying on him from his backyard. He asked me if I'd seen them too; when I (politely, I hope) said no, he dismissed me as part of the conspiracy. I found him amusing.

And I remember this, too: Finishing up work at a farm in Oregon, and a woman was there loading food for a nonprofit she was heavily involved in. She wanted some assistance, so she said, "Hey, are you into helping the homeless?" And I said, "Not really." It was the honest answer, though it elicited a chill of disapproval from her. Which, in retrospect, I find amusing.

So maybe I am part of the conspiracy. Do I want the homeless to get help? Sure. Am I going to contribute? Probably not. Will I stop and render aid when confronted with this situation again, which in downtown Las Vegas will surely happen? No.

Does that bother me?

Not really.