In 1991, in honor of his late wife, Arnold Abbott started the “Love Thy neighbor Fund,” an organization which continues the work they often did together – feeding the homeless.  In spite of this most-noble cause – and in spite of the fact that he is now (as of January 2018) in his early 90’s, Arnold has been arrested a number of times for violating U.S. laws that make feeding homeless people in public a crime.  And yet Arnold Abbott remains undaunted, calmly stating after his 2014 arrest (an incident that appropriately sparked world-wide outrage and drew international attention to the homeless cause in the U.S.) that, “I don’t have the slightest fear of being arrested.  [I will continue to serve the homeless] as long as there is breath in my body … because they are my people.”  Ever-undeterred by their arrests, Mr. Abbot and his co-workers are always back at work the following Wednesdays, preparing the next round of meals to give out later those evenings.   Since 1991, his foundation has served over 1400 homeless people a week, and continues doing so even to this very day.

 

“I spent 50 years of my life fighting for civil rights. I went down to Mississippi and had a lot of Ku Klux Klan people to contend with down there, so I’m not the least bit worried about the Fort Lauderdale police department … The only thing I am concerned about is that there would be nobody to feed the homeless outdoors, which is what I do … And I will not stop doing it.” ~ Arnold Abbott

 

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt