Walter

The other man we met in Civic Center Park was 62 year old Walter. I could have sworn that he was 45, maybe, but then again, he could have sworn that I was only 16. Surprise, surprise. He says he looks so young because he used to run every day at least 10 miles or so.

Like Manny, Walter is a Vietnam War veteran. I later found out that one in every four single homeless persons is a Vietnam veteran, and that slowly, Afghanistan veterans are joining them. Vietnam veterans are so, how do I say it, popular, because the war they fought in wasn't. They already got negative flack for being in a war most of America didn't want them to fight, but then they came back to a not-so-great economy too. Two strikes against them.

The third strike was that these young men were drafted at the age they should/could have been going to college. When they came back, they had been educated in another way, and probably didn't want any more.

Walter was kind. He talked about his daily routine of hitting up a coffee shop with the change he had collected the day before, and then waiting at a street corner. He appreciated us taking the time to feed him, to talk with him and to pray for him. He returned the favor of prayer before telling us that he was going to take a nap now. I like the way he thinks!