May 28 2006
So what?
Trish, as she seems unfortunately gifted with the ability to do, ran into a couple of jerk kids on her trip home a week ago…
Yesterday afternoon when I was leaving work, I witnessed some kids harassing a homeless man standing on the corner asking for money. The parents were nearby, talking to the concierge of the hotel next to my building. I stopped and watched for a few seconds, and then quietly told the kids to leave the man alone. They turned towards me and began saying, “He’s a crack addict, he’s a loser, he lives on the sidewalk” and numerous other taunts.
The parents finally walked over to see what was going on, and asked me why I was talking to their children.
“Your children are harassing this man,” I told them.
“That man is begging in the street to buy booze and drugs,” they told me. “You’re no better than him if you try to take up for him.”
I’ve always wondered about people who take the supposed high-road when it comes to tossing a buck or two to a homeless guy. Their argument for their callousness always amounts to, “why should I give him money? He’s just gonna buy booze with it!”
And?
I mean, let’s face it… So what if the guy buys a bottle of Grey Goose and gets ultimately shit-faced? He doesn’t have a home! In the end is it so bad to provide the guy a little bit of comfort? It’s not like he’s going to beg until he has a home or something ridiculous like that, so what harm is it going to do to let the guy buy a beer?
My way of handling the homeless is very simple. Sometimes I give money, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I help them out, sometimes I don’t. There really is no rhyme or reason to it. Honestly, I don’t think about it all that much. In the end, though, I don’t give a shit if the guy drinks it away on booze, buys a Big Mac, snorts it in coke, or does whatever else the hell he wants to do with it. Giving is not about the idea of what the person does with the gift, it’s about sharing a bit with those who are less fortunate.
We could all do better in giving rather than the masterful job we do of finding rationalizations for not doing so.
Well done, Trish. Those little bastards needed a lecture, and frankly so did their parents.
That’s no way to raise children.
Technorati Tags: homeless
May 28th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I’m 50/50 on this one. I don’t give money to homeless people. I once did and watched the guy do exactly what was mentioned in the post - go and buy booze. Sorry, if it’s my hard-earned money you’ve just received, I want to know that you’re buying something sensible with it, y’know like food, or clothes, or soap. I don’t see why I should fund someone’s drug habit. I have however, given food to homeless people in the past. That seems a more sensible idea to me.
The other half of me says those parents should be strung up by their toes for teaching their kids to be such spoiled snobbish brats. They had no right to harass that man and for the parents to justify that kind of snobbish, holier-than-thou behavior just makes my blood boil.
May 29th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
A lot of those homeless are Veterans of war. Some can’t face the “bees buzzing in their heads”, as one put it. When he used the prescibed medicine, he became depressed and suicidal. So he’d rather drink and smoke marijuanna. He’s not one of the homeless, but it’s the same scenario. There are already 400 Iraqi War Vets without a home. A few are women that were raped by their fellow soldiers, and officers. We don’t know what has driven a person to the condition of begging for money for booze. You have a very good attitude about it. The parents might teach their children just to say “no” and walk away. A good chance for them to teach empathy and understanding.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:28 am
Thanks. I don’t care what they buy with it. I give Jules, a homeless guy in downtown Houston, money all the time and I know he’s a heroin addict and an alcoholic. However, he saved me from being mugged several years ago and punched the guy who was trying to attack me. If I lived on the street and had nowhere to go, I’d smoke or drink anything anyone would give me to lose another day.