Remember Ted Williams? Wish the Same for David Ivans!

After the horrific beating that homeless man David Ivans took at the hands of a couple of Belmar punks, many have come out to give him support, clothing, money, even a motel room to stay in until the new year.

Now comes the hard part!

He says that it’s a matter of making a new start, saying, “I have to stop drinking!”
Not unusual, since he knows himself good enough to admit it.

I think he also knows that in order for it to happen, he’s “gotta wanna!”

Once he’d been taken into the Belmar police station, he talked about his failures in life due to alcohol problems and unemployment, although he’d had a number of jobs working for a die-cast metal company and as a maintenance worker.

Perhaps not the prodigious talent of another homeless man who made the news earlier in the year.

But one who suffers from the same demons as Ivans.

Last year, you may remember seeing the YouTube video that featured Ted Williams, a homeless man who was a former radio talent with a voice bless by God himself, who, himself, eventually fell on hard times, and struggled with drugs and poverty.

The video quickly launched Ted to instant fame, booking voice-over deals and media appearances.

But, the instant fame it brought him just caused him to relapse, whereupon he then checked into a rehabilitation center.

Ted is now working as the official voice of the New England Cable Network.

But I suspect Ted knows that it’s a daily struggle to stay sober at the risk of losing everything he’s gained over the past year.

While all the attention given Ivins is well intentioned, and in some instances to assuage our collective conscience over the growing problem of homelessness in America; one has to wonder that if it’s his fervent hope to get “right”; then who will be there during those times when he feels the “call of the dark side” pulling at him?

Ted, luckily, had that support system.

Will David?