I'd rather read about someone who spent his life helping people or working in a coal mine or an immigrant farm worker who picked fruit until his hands bled......

Those folks have stories too, but you'll never read them in a lottery news forum unless they win a lottery.

Huh?  I don't think this is such a heart-warming story.

I never said it was a heart-warming story, but I do think it's a good story. Sometimes people with sketchy pasts win the lottery. It happens. If they become good, productive citizens, so what?

There is nothing here that tells me this man turned his life around,except that he doesn't have to work any more because he won a lot ofmoney. He didn't give up crime because he had an epiphany.

"More than the millions, the birth of his first son turned him away from street life and selling drugs, Robelin says."

Maybe the birth of his son and winning the lottery was his epiphany. Maybe he saw this as his second chanceat life. He's got to start somewhere. Is he suppose to give up the money? There is nothing in that article that states he is continuing with his drug lifestyle. Isn't better that he quit being a bad person, who deals drugs then continue to be one? And yeah no one has to deal drugs, but a lot of people do. Some people change some don't.

"More than the millions, the birth of his first son turned him away from street life and selling drugs, Robelin says."

Maybe the birth of his son and winning the lottery was his epiphany. Maybe he saw this as his second chance at life.

ThatScaryChick

Okay, TSC, you have a point, but it sounds as if he turned away from "that life" because he was busted.  This is just one article and I really don't know anything about this man.  Sure, people do change.  I get that.  I was only saying he lived a life of crime for a long time, according to what I know.  (I'm surprised he didn't serve a longer sentence.)  The point is, I don't see why someone who does what any good person should have done in the first place, should get a pat on the back.  Maybe this is off-topic, since my post wasn't a comment on his lottery win, but the fact that people wrote it was such a nice story. Everyone has a right to play & win.   But if someone drinks and drives for years, despite all the warnings, and eventually kills a family on Christmas day, is he a great guy because he gets sober after he gets out of jail?  Does that bring comfort to the family he killed?  No.  And winning the lottery won't bring them back either.  Spiritually, we need to have compassion and forgiveness in our hearts.  However, we also need to look at the damage someone caused and ask for accountability.  Our society is always looking to make excuses for people.  "His father beat him, so that's why he's a serial killer."  Sorry, not good enough.  Everyone has a sad story, but they chose the life they lived.  When you become an adult, you get to a fork in the road and choose the path you wish to travel.  Young men & women are dying for our right to be free.  So I'd rather read about a winner who served his country than someone who ran a drug & gun operation.

Sorry, that's just me.  YMMV.  Peace! 

Anyone see the irony here?

Consider these two thread titles:

Ex-con held on to his lotto winnings and started new life

Lottery winner almost out of cash three years later

Norman Vincent Peale often said character is not nmade so much by what happens to you in life as much as how you react to what happens to you in life.

Good post, Coin Toss.  I agree, except I'm not totally convinced that being a good money manager is indicative of one's upstanding character.   There are some very wealthy people who die alone and miserable.

Of course a little more irony is that far more people die every year from the oh-so-legal drugs in their medicine cabinet than die from the "illegal" drugs on the street.

^{_{Modern "education" teaches a version of history so fictionalized, it should be followed by "TM"}
They're warning me about Osama or whatever. Picture me buying the scam; I say "never!".}

Nice story.

Also, the $80,000 a year he spends is less than CDs would return to him, so his fortunes should be growing slowly.

"News of his criminal past made people leery to ask for money, he says."

Note to self, when claiming my jackpot, reminisce about the triple homicide I got away with.

(obviously I didn't really)