"So this guy, Phil Workman was on death row. He’s been executed now, but his request for his last meal was to have a pizza delivered to any homeless person in the area. The prison denied his request, saying they don’t donate to charities.
However, lots of other people do! Tons of people donated pizzas to homeless shelters in Nashville after they found out about this. Some people donating up to $1,200 worth of pizza. People were touched by the selflessness of his act. This one act of virtue caused people to respond with kindness and sacrifice for the less fortunate.
Think about that when you feel like you can’t make much of a difference in the world."
A good deed sure, but what the hell’s up with that prison not spending maybe 5 dollars on some homeless guy? Thats kind of mean. No, -really- mean, that makes me angry. I’m gonna go find a homeless guy and feed him. That’ll show that bastard warden whats up!
I read this article the other day, linked to from digg. It is really a selfless act and I don’t understand why people on death row have a $20 limit for their last meal request. It costs more than that to keep them in prison each day! Can’t the people who run the prison just pretend that they were incarcerated for like two more days, and at least give them a $40-$60 limit? And as for the “taxpayers don’t allow us to donate to charity” thing…I’m sure you could explain this story to anyone and they would allow a couple of cents to go towards giving a homeless person some pizza at a death-row-inmate’s request. I know I would.
@unibuddy
right, feed him rather than give him money. food in a homeless person’s hands will generally go much further than money. When I used to walk up to Wendy’s with my friends (~1mile away) before I had a car, we would take a shortcut through a local church where we would sometimes see a one-legged homeless man. I’ve bought him a couple of burgers.
At risk of a pro/anti debate about capital punishment (not my intent here), keep in mind that Phillip Workman was executed for killing a police officer. Workman spent 26 years on death row. He spent countless taxpayer dollars on numerous appeals which were denied. I don’t think any amount of donated pizza will bring back the slain police officer.
Some bad cops destignates themself to be killed.
I have no idea what kind of cop he killed. But I will not instantly adapt my opinion on a murderer just because it turned out he killed a human that turned out to be police officer (like police officers are by default any better or worse than homeless).
26 years? That also means Workman created work for otherwise jobless lawyers and such.
And from what I’ve heared the US prison industry is profitable enough to buy a pizza or two.
But hey… yes, I also like to avoid a discussion that probably can be found using the search button.
If the guy had called out to a god of sorts and confessed his mortal sins, a majority of american citizens would’ve hailed him as renaisance killer.
But he chose to feed a man?
The cheek of it.
Anything can get the attention of the pigs…that’s where they earn that nickname.
Policemen aren’t always doing good things…Julia Lennon was killed by getting run over by a police officer who was driving while intoxicated, for example.
Police officer comes home. Is about to kill all her 3 children with a knife, because -as she later declared in court- “god told the devil was in them, and I had to do it”.
So far no hypotectical case. This happened in November.
Now sitting in your comfy chair behind your computer…
What if you would have been on that scene with a gun and no other ammo than 9mm?
Or are you glad you were’nt there?
Actually you can spare me your answer, as I know (luckaly for you) it’s beyond your imagination how a situation like a above truly is.
If you like to admit your statement was naieve, no problem.
Naieve people ain’t stupid; but those who cause them to be naive are.
Don’t you think this is a bit harsh. He has his truth, just like you have yours.
My own opinion is that police officers are just people, like everyone else and as I think killing a human being is the worst thing you can do, then so is killing a police officer. I’m sure they are as likely as anyone else to do aweful things, or perhaps even more so as theirs must be a very stressful life.
However, the police are paid by the state/taxpayers or whatever to enforce the law and so I can understand why the state may give harsher punishments for people who kill police officers.
Personally, I think that if you want to feed a homeless person, then go and feed one. I think it’s pathetic that one man who is about to be put to death thinking this is a good idea makes loads of other people do it. One pizza isn’t going to help any homeless person very much in the grand scheme of things anyway.
American mantra: give a man a pizza and you will feed him for the day. Teach him to deliver pizzas and he will get a chance in 10,000,000 to become a millionaire!
I don’t think that was his intent…anyway he didn’t really have the choice to go out and buy a pizza himself, and deliver it himself, then return back to imprisonment in time to be executed. He wanted to make someone else’s life a little bit better and the authorities wouldn’t help him. Maybe he knew how bad a person he was by now, and he wanted to do one more good deed before he died.
Making her/him realize life sometime is more complex is hars?
Like more hars than having an extreme opinion on a suspect while having a lack of details?
I had a lack of details to estimate how Headstone would be able to deal with it, so If s/he can’t handle my reply… then yes; possible it is hars. If so… good! If not, better.
If solving problem for homeless is your intention, yes.
But what if this was an atempt to force the executers face the problems from the homeless, and make them aware of how people may come to commiting a robbery on a Wendy’s restaurant… then I think it was a clever and nice way.
And what if one man who’s having an average life thinks this is a good idea, and make loads of people do it?
But, knowing people, it probably wasn’t. It probably was the only way he could think of at the time to (metaphorically speaking) stick two fingers up at the prison system and the state.
Absolutely fine if they keep on doing it and don’t just do it for the novelty. But not if they’re all going to go hungry again tomorrow.
I believe he’s referring to the story where a person is walking on the beach early in the morning, picking up the starfish lying on the sand and throwing them into the ocean. Another person comes up to the first person and asks what she or he is doing. Person 1 says, “The sun is coming up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw these starfish back into the water, they’ll die.” Person 2 says, “There’s miles and miles of beach, thousands of starfish! You can’t possibly think this will make a difference, do you?” Person 1 picks up another starfish, throws it into the ocean, and says, “It made a difference for that one.”
