"The wino got up, slowly, pulling himself up to the stool, then up to the counter, holding on for a minute until his legs stopped shaking so bad.  He looked at me with pure hate. "Keep your twenty six cents.  You don't have to pay, not now.  I just finished paying for it." (para. 35)

 

            After reading this autobiography excerpt, I felt sadness for how mistreated this man was.  The excerpt showed how cruel people can be and how it can affect an individual for life.  Richard Gregory "was pregnant with poverty." He absolutely had nothing in his life and this made me think of how our lives are today.  

            Today, we take advantage of what is available to us and we live in abundance and surplus.  Not many people today, specifically in America suffer the way Richard suffered.  We do not usually worry about what food to eat but rather, we worry about what phones to get or whether it be Mexican, Chinese or Italian food for dinner.  We have endless choices and by reading this short segment, It was hard imagining what life would be like in Richards' shoes. 

            On top of living in complete poverty, the paragraph above depicts a point where Richard had "googobs" or an overabundance of money in his pocket.  He witnessed a "wino" or bum, just getting beaten for not having enough money to pay for the meal.  Out of the kindness of his hear, Richard offered to pay the bill and the man was as unthankful as can be.  That feeling is terrible because I had a similar experience of my own once.  A bum approached me and asked for some money, to which I felt generous and gave five dollars.  The bum stalked me and demanded I give more money with pure hatred.  Richard's situation was much worse of course, however I felt very sick about the situation myself. 

            When someone allocates hatred to a kind heart, it only hurts the person trying to help.  The person was never obligated to help to begin with and by not being thankful, but rather hateful only makes the world a harder place to live in.  If more people can be conscience of others' emotions, we would be a happier society because this kind of treatment is quite prevalent today.