Sweet as usual!:o

I'm going to tell you that I have an issue with you enabling someone. It would have been far better if you'd gotten him help. Particularly if he was self medicating a physical or psychological ailment.

Welfare fraud is out there. Do you disagree?

Okay, so let's say I'm 'privileged,' why is that even relevant? Do I need to experience something in order to comprehend it? I don't think your argument carries a whole lot of water. I never have implied anything other than the fact that I work hard for what I have and would do so regardless of what I don't have to work for. How that has anything to do with the homeless is beyond me.

You didn't even make the comment. I'm sure kddani can answer the question herself.

Half? Now you're really stretching.

My feelings are attached to my status? I've explained to you several times that at least with the services offerred in this immediate area, anyone with a working mind and body can get off the streets if they'll invest a little in themselves. Knowing that has nothing to do with my status or privilege level -- it's just a fact. That someone fails to avail themselves of services they have to walk by every day in order to get to the prime panhandling locations communicates their intention not to want to work for a living.

Your "pride" arguments, etc. are completely bunk for reasons explained before. Being homeless is a choice. Sure, people do end up on the streets through no fault of their own -- but to remain there is a choice.

You have no clue about the situation and about the person so why do you want to put some input in about a person who you have no knowledge about?

There are people in need who need help and others who do not want help!:mad:

So, who are your to judge what they want to do?

I was in need and luckly got help when I got divorced and she took everything.

I worked my ass off all of my life, maybe you did or not,but until you have been there, climb off.

If you do not know then do not judge about what others think!

Kevin is saying, they ahve the opportunity to get help and do not and I would not give them money either!

If you wish to, then knock yourself out and quite bitching about us who get tired of it!

When you donate your self into the poor house, do not come and ask for alms oh poor person!:(

The one I always saw was near the Hynes T stop. Luckily I've never seen the Fox station making fun of any of them. That's really uncalled for.

Uh huh, You won't give them money but you'll give them wine in exchange for the food they've been given? I really really doubt you can justify that. The rest of your post has zero bearing on that point.

Any Rainbow girls out there getting flashbacks like I am ??!! :D :D

I don't think he was being unreasonable. If a person wants to get blitzed and forget about his worries, and he values that more than food, what's the big deal? Enabling an addict on the streets is not really a bad thing. If that's what the addict wants to do, who are you to judge?

At least this particular customer of Tom's wasn't being aggressive or asking for handouts. He was bartering for his wine. Sounds good to me.

Holy crap, I agree with Kevin.

There was (maybe still is?) a homeless guy in Chicago whose tagline was "Help a drunk get drunker!" At least he was honest (I think -- there's no way of knowing what he did with the money) and he also was cool as hell.

In my very small town we have no real "homeless", we have a place that any one who would need it can stay and the handful of "homeless" we have are taken care of because well, they're the regulars. (We even had one named Buttermilk Bill, kinda miss him).

Since I'm not used to them one time in Daytona Beach we were driving past one and I wanted to give him something but the rest of the crew did not want to. So, I threw a granola bar out the window at him.

I tried.

Here's my 2 cents. I don't care why the person is homeless. If there's an immediate need, and I have the means to provide, I will. If I have food in the car, they get some food. If I have a few dollars on me, they get a few dollars. If they buy food, they don't go to sleep hungry. If they buy booze, they might be so groggy by the time they go to sleep they forget they're miserable.

Yes! That is exactly what I was thinking.

WOW. That is completely and totally wrong. That's an awful thing to say about feeding someone's addiction, it totally adds to the decline of society itself.




And yet, it doesn't make me the least bit mad. I completely and totally understand it, in fact, I even sort of agree with this statement. What's happening to me???? I've changed....

Well, look at it this way -- you give them money, you're merely providing them with a vehicle to continue to survive in the 'homeless lifestyle.' You're removing any sort of motivation for them to get off their asses and change their fortune. That is equally -- if not more harmful than the situation Tom described.

In Tom's situation, the guy wasn't even looking for a handout. He was trading one type of good for another. He valued alcohol more than food. It's not a healthy choice, but someone who is on the street has already made an unhealthy choice to be and to remain on the street. I don't understand how that feeds the "decline of society."

The ultimate point here is that you just cannot get riled up when a homeless person approaches you- even if they get aggressive. If you are in imminent danger or are attacked, that is one thing- but otherwise you just gotta not worry about it.

At some times in life we all get short/nasty/agitated with people we can afford to treat like that. It is an ugly fact, but crap rolls downhill- whether it should or not.

I personally think that many people get so upset about homeless people invading their sense of social status because they cannot control the situation.

If a waiter or salesperson gets out of line, you can complain and remediate the situation- getting some kind of sense of personal justice in the process that validates your position in society.

But if a homeless person does that, who are you going to complain to? What hold or control do you have over that person? None!

Yet this also raises the question, why get so riled up about it in the first place?

Insecurity? Ego? A sense of entitlement to more insulation from the real world?

All of these things apply- and we are all guilty.

When I was in college at Georgia, a homeless man once asked me for money on the street one night and I ignored him. He asked me, "Can you spare some change?"

I stiffened up and walked on- agitated at being asked.

Another homeless guy sitting next to him said, as I walked by all puffed up, "Shit, he can't even spare a walk!" And he said it so perfectly- just picture Redd Foxx saying it back in his glory days as a standup comedian.

I have never forgotten that because it was a reminder that at some level we are all the same and we are all destined to live in a world in which we have no ability to fully ensure that life's events only approach us on the terms we want.

So I don't sweat it anymore. If anything, it is nice to be reminded that no matter where I get in the world- at a certain point I am no better than anyone else.

Maybe a bit overly philosophical, but that is how I see it. And I am grateful for the fact I am person in a position to make the choice to see it like that.