Homeless people

[Kevin]

They annoy the hell out of me.

I live downtown about 3-4 blocks away from the bus station which is relatively close to the homeless shelter. I frequently walk between where I live and the city's main club/bar/entertainment district (known as Bricktown). Without fail, I get hit up at least twice.

Yesterday, I saw a homeless guy who had taken his art form to a new low. Dude was sitting in a wheel chair, pulling himself around by his feet (if he was really unable to walk, I don't see a) how in the hell he got all the way out there in a wheel chair and b) if his legs worked well enough to pull him around in his chair why he needed the chair. At any rate, dude looked pathetic.

My wife and I were walking to the botanical garden which is also a few blocks from home. The guy locked onto us like a heat seeking missile. You ever watch football where you think the guy with the ball is going to go for a touchdown, but some defender "has the angle" and catches him? Well, this guy had the angle on us. We of course pick up the pace, but the "crippled" guy starts dragging his wheelchair at warp speed catching up to us.

As he starts to close on us, I figured out how to lose him. We made a bee-line for a parking garage where there was a high curb -- and most notably, no ramp to make it wheel chair accessible (it was a shortcut anyhow). So of course we lost the guy. I guess he was faced with the dilemna of actually catching up to us (eventually he would have) or blowing his wheelchair cover by getting himself over that curb. We won... game, set, match.

These folks really get on my nerves. They aren't really all that bad off. If they're able to catch up to me in their fake wheelchair and give me some bullcrap story about how they ran out of gas, lost their job down at the plant, etc., they can definitely work. That they choose not to ain't my problem. There are homeless that really do need help.. like the schizo woman (who I still see around here walking the streets occasionally) I stopped to block traffic and dialed 911 for as she was laying in the middle of the street clutching a teddy bear screaming "Kill me!". Those folks need our help. Panhandlers? eff em.