I used to have a pretty decent income. I gave via payroll deduction to the United Way every year. When the Boy Scouts (the biggest benefactor of those funds), openly threw out the homosexuals, I stopped giving. Until they stop discriminating, I will not be supporting them via donations to the United Way.
So then how could I fulfill my need to be charitable? I started handing out $20 bills to the guys on the street corners.
I took all sorts of abuse for doing this, as if I was personally enabling them to kill themselves by giving them money. Of course they were going to buy drugs and alcohol with it, I knew that was a good likelihood. But they were asking for help, I had extra to give, so it was a mutually agreeable situation. Who was I to make a value judgment as to their worthiness for receiving aid that I was able to give?
Until the economy went south. All of a sudden, so did my income. I started giving $10s instead of $20s. Within a few months, it got worse, and I dropped to $5s. And that's about the time that EVERY ingress and egress point in the city became permanent stations for people with badly written cardboard signs. (Does no one have access to anything other than old black marker and hand-torn flaps of cardboard? Seriously?)
Sign o' the times: Lots of women out there, not just the usual man or man with loyal doggie. Sometimes, even entire nuclear families sitting forlorn in the inclement weather.
Now I dread going shopping in the daylight, because I can't avoid them. I have started giving only a few dollars each time. I haven't the intestinal fortitude to sit in my car and studiously pretend I don't see them, nor do I have the hard heart to ignore their silent pleading eyes. At the same time, my wallet is near to empty and I'm living from paycheck to paycheck, myself.
What happens to us when the Zombie Apocalypse hits? These folks are prime recruits and we will all be targets. Don't say I didn't warn you!
Oh, man. You are such a sucker. It's sweet though. But really, maybe you should choose a decent charity and go through that. A couple of dollars here or there (that may or may not go to alcohol, or to a con man that doesn't really need the money (or even to a truly needy person)) isn't going to make as much of a difference as the right charity could. Handing out money to panhandlers, while very human, is just funneling money to the wrong people or encourages the right people to go about getting help the wrong way.
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