Do you give to panhandlers?

[CalebHayes]

why or why not?

[freetobegay]

1. I use to, not any more

When I lived in Miami, I would spend a good portion of my paycheck giving to pan handlers helping them out. Then low & behold I see a news story where alot of pan handlers were making more money than me living in nice houses in the suburbs!

I now give to charities, I can only hope it goes to who needs it.

[wtmusic]

2. All the time

I'm so fucking lucky I don't know where to start. It's the least I can do.

I'm being ripped off? No doubt, some of the time. Some of the time you help someone out who really needs it.

[CalebHayes]

3. I do - simply

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. As a former (and for all I know, future) panhandler,

I figure it's my turn to give right now.

[imax2268]

5. I used to give to

many of them...but now I don't as much as I used to...just to the ones that I think can really benifit from it...

but if one comes up to me and asks me for money for food...I'll say..."Well come on...I'll take you right down the street to McDonalds and buy you a burger and a soda"...most of the time they refuse because they want the money for booze...

[corriger]

6. or that you are killing them with

macdonald! I had to laugh a bit, sorry.

Ps. I give when I can also.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

11. Ive actually bought a guy some food at a fast food place....

...it was near the Greyhound station in Sacramento (a city that has traditionally been a hub for drifters). I think I bought him a burger at Wendys, and we talked a bit.

And, when I picked up a trick at a gay bar, this drifter came along, and my trick gave him a bowl of chili, and sent him on his way (then we had sex).

Ive bought a drifter a beer at a gay bar, too. The bar was near the Western Pacific mainline as went through town, so the freights where going slow.

I figured this guy jumped the freight and found his way to the bar, not knowing it was a gay place. He got a bit freaked out when I told him, but I said "chill out...let me buy you a beer and tell me your story".

Theres sort of a tradition out west of feeding and helping out drifters. My partner said his gradmother used to do this too...giving them a bowl of chili or some tamales..

[Bertha Venation]

26. yep

Fast food, and groceries, once, for a woman who had two little kids with her at an offramp. And once gave a woman hot dogs I just bought at the stand in DC. It's a no brainer: people are hungry. I can help, so I do.

[RoyGBiv]

34. Helping out drifters...

My grandfather worked as an ice man at the railroad depot in the early part of the 20th century. Grandma told me that during the Depression his appetite appeared to increase ten fold. He took huge lunches to work with him, yet he remained very thin. At first Grandma chalked this up to the intense labor he exerted, but she figured it out pretty quickly when she realized he was taking a lot of extra helpings of vegetables he didn't particularly like.

When drifters rolled through on the cars, he gave them food and as much ice as he could get away with giving them. It was just the way they did things.

[RoyGBiv]

22. Maybe...

There's a pride thing involved with this. Yes, I know it's hard to imagine pride being involved with someone who has taken it upon him or herself to stand on a street corner and ask for money, but it's present.

I've gotten to know some homeless people personally, possibly because I fear I may soon be among them and am subconsciously seeking contacts. (And I'm not kidding.) From what they tell me, taking a couple dollars is quick and only momentarily painful to the ego. Having to spend time with the person giving charity only serves to emphasize the horror of the position they are in, and they feel shame and guilt and all kinds of negative emotions.

As has been expressed in other ways with other groups, these people die a social death long before their physical death, and it's the social death that is so long and painful. Asking for a dollar doesn't add to the pain more than anything else. Having that process drawn out by a visit to a restaurant is something else again.

I've brought food to these people, and I've never had it refused. I also know that if I give them cash, they may well spend it on cigarettes or booze. Who am I to judge? I hope not to be able to imagine the kind of pain they experience, and I am certainly not going to question them if they choose to momentarily kill that pain with chemicals, especially not since those who have jobs or money do it on a daily basis for less traumatic reasons.

[Susang]

28. Great attitude, great post

I wish more people on this thread thought like you did. We need more compassion and less judgement these days. :-)

[Career Prole]

35. I give what I can to most of them. The ones with the "out of gas" story

excepted. I've got a gas can in the truck and I offer to buy the gas and take them back to their pregnant wife in their stranded car. Usually I get cussed out for it. Never had one take me up on the offer yet.

[solinvictus]

7. Selectively

I've become more cynical in my old age and see so many of the same faces with the same stories here in town: I need bus fare, my car broke down, is out of gas, etc.

[corriger]

8. what is your city?

[pagerbear]

20. Me too, although I voted Yes

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

9. on the freeway exit....

...there was this panhandler...some old drifter....
I gave to him, actually backed up traffic...called him over & gave him a buck.

I was watching the expression of the fat mitliary GOPer in the truck behind me when I was doint that, too. (I live in an affluent area).

But I don't do this to piss off conservatives. I've always gave to panhandlers.

The way I see it "there but for the grace of God go I"...i put myself in these folks' place. Or, like that hymm we sang in parochial school..."That what you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me"....

[corriger]

10. I never realised before how primitive a space

America truly is

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

13. No illusions.

This is a raw place. I have no illusions about it.

[Carolina]

14. "there but for the grace of God go I"...

exactly my sentiments. Since I have been fortunate my entire life, I can't help but give to someone who is reduced to begging on the streets.

[Taverner]

12. I call it the "Homeless Tax"

Karma so you yourself don't become homeless...

[VolcanoJen]

15. Yes, I do... My "Panhandler Angel" story.

Weird, but it really happened.

So, I was hanging around downtown sometime a few years ago, during RiverFest in a big crowd, as I remember. I was groaning because I had brought $40 with me and seemed to have lost a $20 when paying for a beer. I searched through every last stitch of clothing, all through my purse, every pocket, the ground, even re-traced my steps back to the car. I gave up, paid for another beer with my remaining $20 and pocketed the change.

While walking along and trying to find my friends, I spotted a panhandler, and something about him, sitting there in the midst of this joyous celebration, this debauchery, looking poor and needy, I dropped him a few dollars out of my pocket.

After walking away, I was going through my pocket again, trying to figure out how many more over-priced warm draft beers I could afford. There, in my pocket, was a brand-new $20 bill, folded in with my random change. I swear I had gone through that pocket one hundred times before giving up on finding the lost $20.

I looked back in the direction of the panhandler I had given $2 to moments earlier. He was gone.

Yes, I know. It's weird. But I do give to panhandlers. And that's just the way I am.

[Lisa0825]

16. No, I'd rather give to a group that provides services for them.

There are so many cons on the street corners. I don't want to waste my money one someone raking in the cash for acting a part. Plus, i feel that giving cash to people on the street just perpetuates the problem. I have given to shelters and soup kitchens, but I won't give to individuals.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

17. I do that too... but still give on the street, with one exception....

as part of the united way....I give to St Vincent De Paul, which provides homeless shelters and soup kitchens in my town.

I don't have any problem givng to people on the street, either. ..I really dont care what they use the money for.

I did draw the line at these punker kids in the expensive clothes asking for cash....that happened to me in Sacto once. I was really pissed-off at that as Sacto had a real homeless/drifter population, too.

I remember once, this homeless couple who just wanted some change to put their luggage (which they where carrying) in a pay-locker at the Greyhound station.

There is some serious hardship out there, or at least there was in the early 80s, when I was exposed alot to homeless folks.

[LibertyorDeath]

18. I offer to buy them food.

I've got my own "habits" to support.

[lapauvre]

19. Because I assess them

subjective, admittedly, but, I do.

And I give to those who I assess as truly desperate and likely not to survive.

I soon may be one of them. lol

[TexasMexican]

21. Depends

I give to some, not to others.

[forgethell]

23. Not anymore.

I used to until I realized that 1) there were organizations that could distribute the funds better than I could, 2) a lot of them are con-persons, and 3) I was enabling the drunks and drug-users to continue in their self-destructive patterns. As I do not have the expertise to separate out the ones that I would be helping and the one that I would be hurting, I stopped and give to organizations that specialize in this sort of thing.

[Lisa0825]

24. Exactly how i feel. (nt)

[forgethell]

31. Let me clarify a bit more.

I WILL buy a meal for a panhandler. It has amazed me how many won't accept anything but cash. They can be very rude, too. Which doesn't bother me. I just leave without giving them anything.

[Bertha Venation]

25. yes: because I give someone who looks hungry the benefit of the doubt

eom

[Carl Brennan]

27. Used too, but stopped.

[Susang]

29. If I have cash on me, of course I'll give

As a matter of fact, I usually have change readily accessable so that I don't have to dig in my bag for it. I'm compassionate but safe. ;-)

[Liberal Classic]

30. I used to be pretty generous

Until I went to some house party, and who do I meet? The guy I always give money to at the overpass but now he's wearing a cashmere sweater and dockers. After that, I started carrying cans of chili or beef stew. If one of them turns their nose up at it, I figure they're not really hungry enough. One who did take the canned goods when asked if he had a can opener said, "No but I've got a .45!" LOL! I sometimes buy fast food or snacks, but now I tend to give money only to those with an obvious physical ailment. Missing limbs, eyes, tracheotomies, and the like.

The last time I was in San Francisco, I noticed what must have been an expensive advertising campaign by the city to stop people from giving tramps money. I wonder how many people they could have fed instead of renting those billboards?

[nemo137]

32. I do, for the most part.

It's the idea that I may need assistance at some point, the same reason I give blood, sowing for the future you know? So if i guy asks me for bus money, or a couple dollars, I'll give him some.

Granted, I've had it happen where I give a guy 3 dollars and he immediately goes across the street to the bar. Of course, that's the last time I pull out my wallet for him.

But mostly, yes.

[nini]

33. I gave a bag lady a 20 tonight..

I saw her pushing her cart through parking lot and smiled at her. She was shocked I acknowledged her. I asked her if she was hungry, she said yes. So I started to get her some change and then thought what the hell and gave her a twenty I just pulled from the ATM

She had tears in her eyes and I watched her walk over to a food place immediately. I felt it was my duty on the day Reagan died to help someone he had so much responsibility in helping put on the streets.

If she drinks part of it away.. I don't care. She got a hot meal tonight and a smile from someone which made her smile.


I don't always give to panhandlers but do at times. This lady touched me for some reason and she didn't even have to ask.

[Adelante]

36. I haven't seen any lately

But when I lived in Manhattan, all the time.