60 Minutes on Sunday did an absolutely touching segment about homeless people living in cars and trucks in Florida.
One such unfortunate soul was Arielle Metzger, a 15-year-old girl with more self-confidence and pride than those carping and whining about what they're supposedly entitled to in Occupy encampments around the country (video follows with transcript and commentary):
At the end of this fourteen minute segment, host Scott Pelley had an amazing discussion with Arielle and her 13-year-old brother Austin:
Scott Pelley, Host: One threat to a family out here is idleness, so the folks that we met fill the days with every free and normal thing. After school, the Metzgers drive their truck to the library.
Arielle Metzger: 'Cause they've got the computers that we can use. And light and all that.
Pelley: I wonder what education means to you two?
Austin Metzger: It's everything.
Arielle Metzger: It is everything to us. I plan to be a child defense lawyer. If I focus on my studies, I have that opportunity.
Pelley: The American dream is durable. And there is something about growing up in a truck that makes you believe in it all the more. As we tagged along with the Metzgers they told us they like the truck better than a motel and they wanted to show us something they've been doing in the evenings: they're acting in a community theater, a free and normal thing.
On stage they had a chance to be somebody else, but what struck us most was that they were just as happy in their roles as the Metzgers.
Arielle Metzger: Before the truck I always saw all these homeless people and I would feel so bad for them. And then as soon as we started living in the truck ourselves I've seen even more. And I just feel so bad. And even though I'm homeless myself I wanna do as much as I can to help them get up, back on their feet.
Pelley: You sound very adult to me.
Austin Metzger: She is. She likes to take over.
Pelley: And you too a little bit, Austin. You had to grow up pretty fast?
Arielle Metzger: Yeah.
Austin Metzger: Yeah.
Arielle Metzger: Every time I see like a teenager or any other kid fighting with their parents or arguing with them and like not doing what they're told it really hurts me. Because they could be in my shoes. And of course I don't want them to be in my shoes. But they need to learn to appreciate what they have and who they have in their life. Because it may be the last day they might have it.
Imagine that.
You want to bet against Arielle becoming a child defense attorney?
