Erasing debt and forgivness is a new trend for 2021!

 

                     NEWS IN A NEW YEAR

·        On January 4, 2021 the American business-focused international Wall Street Journal newspaper moaned “It’s a desperate time. Crush of COVID-19 patients strains US hospitals.”

·        The Hill newspaper (the American news website, based in Washington DC) reported on Friday, January 1, 2021 “Oncologist erases medical debt for nearly two hundred of his patients”.

Why did he do so? “To make their lives a little bit easier.”

·        “Policeman buys family food instead of arresting them for shoplifting.” BBC News reported. Officer Lima, the policeman said, “The two children with the woman reminded him of his kids “so he had to help them out.”

It is another year, with another mix of news and views as we move into 2021.

Dr. Omar Atiq, who is originally from Pakistan, founded the Arkansas Cancer Clinic in 1941. He is retiring now. Just before Christmas 2020, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, he sent out a notice to say, “the clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients”.

He hoped the gesture would make the lives of some 200 people a little bit easier. He erased more than $650,000 (over half a million dollars) in medical debt.

Dr. Atiq is also a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. He said that over time he and his wife realized that there were some people “who just are unable to pay” so they looked at forgiving all the debts.

He said on the Good Morning America program that erasing the debt was something we could at least do to help the community especially amid the economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.

Bea Cheesman, President of RMC of America, the billing company that worked with Dr. Atiq on the project commented that Dr. Atiq’s gesture was “a wonderful thing. A truly kind gesture.”

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When US policeman Matt Lima was called to arrest two women who were accused of shoplifting he had no thought that his actions would place his picture and the story on websites including the BBC.

The call came from Stop and Shop a food store in Somerset, Massachusetts. Two women were accused of shoplifting, they were not scanning all their groceries.

When Matt Lima arrived and questioned the women, they confessed that they “had fallen upon hard times and could not afford to pay for all the food.” But they still wanted to give their children a Christmas dinner.

That was when something touched his heart. He looked at the two children with the women and they reminded him of his own children. “So, I had to help them out” he said.

Obviously, this family was in need. He served them with a “No Trespass Order” but did not press charges as all the items on the receipt were for food.

Then he used his own money to buy them a gift card close in value to what would have been taken so they could purchase food at another store.

“I just did what I felt was right. It is not about me. I tried to put myself in that family’s shoes and show a little bit of empathy,” he said.

The women were “kind of shocked” at the kind gesture. That was not what usually happens in such a situation! But they were grateful for the kindness.

It is, after all, a New Year.

#pakistan #police #kindness #kindness #Massachusetts