What I Learned from Being a Beggar in New York City for an Hour

Whatever happened to the kindness of strangers?

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

I have never been fired from a job.

Except once — a week after the man I wrote 350 speeches for in two years — Donald J. Manes, the Borough President of Queens — committed suicide in his kitchen because he knew he was just about to get busted for…