Stealing

STEALING FROM THE RICH from ABOVE on Vimeo.

New York City is a place of a million contradictions. A place where the big swinging dicks of wall street go downtown to spend thousands of dollars to play in the box. It is also the place where men wheel giant towers of mismatched belongings plucked from the trash in urban mobile homes courtesy of home depot. Everyday on the subway I watch people turn away from the poor, the addicted and the homeless. No doubt thinking to themselves that giving them a dollar is a waste because its just going to get them another hit. As if they can exist on air and crack alone. Usually they just turn away from the disinterest, the scorn and sometimes even people's fear. But sometimes, they don't. Those are the rare and wonderful times and I was lucky enough to see one just the other day.

I was riding the train to the upper west side standing next to this tall blonde woman in some hideous outfit that was supposed to look expensive. At the next stop a woman got on the train, looking like a complete mess. She was filthy, her clothes didn't fit her, and she was cut all over. She began by asking the train for a couple dollars to get some food. As I began rooting through my things for a dollar I noticed that the blonde was frantically trying to edge away from this woman. Clearly, the woman noticed as well and she started say VERY loudly. "You don't have to run away from me. I am just a human being, just like you and what I have is not contagious." Apparently the shock of all this over powered the blonde's recent botox treatments because I actually saw her face move as she continued to inch away. At this point we reached the next stop and as people got off the blonde rushed down the train car and sat in an open seat. Undeterred the woman followed her loudly repeating a variation on the don't run away from me theme. At this point the entire car was silent and watching as the woman towered over the blonde. She leaned down into the blondes face with her finger extended and said...."you should be fucking ashamed of yourself to treat me like this". Then she stood up and walked away.