The guy was missing a leg...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

from the knee down. He walked up to me in the parking lot of the store I'd just come from and asked for some money so he could eat, mumbling something about how he was waiting for his disability to come through. If I hadn't been pressed for time and feeling a little uncomfortable talking with him, I'd have asked him what the circumstances were that led him to beg.

For the last several years, I've donated to a local shelter to avoid having my money get spent on drugs or alcohol. I couldn't do it this time...I had to give him a couple of bucks at least. Sometimes I wonder if I should care how they spend the money. Maybe I'd be an addict/alcoholic too, if I was on disability or welfare or just so screwed by society that I had to beg to make ends meet.

What about you? What do you do in a situation like this?

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. give them money

Or, if I don't have anything smaller than a $5, I give them whatever change I got and ask if they'll be around in this spot when I come back from where ever I'm going.

[Nashyra]

5. We have a guy at the grocery store parking lot

if Matt and I see him when we go in we get the bag lunch from the deli and give it to him so he does not spend money on drugs or alchol. If he's there in the winter we usually slip him a $20.00 because there is a 17.95 motel around the corner. He is a homeless vet with no legs. A crying shame any of our vets are in that condition. He's been around for a few years but not everyday.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Buying food for them is a good idea...

I'm not sure if this guy was a vet or not. He looked like he was in the 25-30 age range. He was in good shape otherwise...may very well have been a vet.

[Skittles]

2. If I have the time

I'll buy them dinner and eat with them. And talk.

[AWD]

3. Give them money

They gave up pride to even ask for it.

Don't care what they do with it...it's tough enough on them without liberals judging them too.

[AlienGirl]

8. Same here...

And, having spent the past two months waiting for a check from SSI--and having to jump through ever-higher hoops to get it released--I can see where someone could get that desperate. Only the fact that I'm able to mooch off friends and family has kept me afloat.

There are things food stamps don't pay for. He might have needed medicine or razors or toilet paper or bus fare. Or, for that matter, a new book--the needs of poor people extend far beyond food and shelter. (Or he might've been a Buddhist monk in training or a traveling scholar--my mind leaps to possibilities.)

I tend to give what I can, when I can, and usually talk to the person for a while.

Tucker

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. That was the sense I had about him...

But I was in another situation where the same woman asked me for "bus money" from Annapolis to Baltimore; once with 2 kids in tow. She was about 3 blocks from an open air drug market. I felt sickened that she'd use kids that way, even though I felt sorry for her. I couldn't give her any money.

[wellstone_democrat]

4. I've stopped caring what is "done" with the money

On the advice of a friend that worked (professionally) in addiction services years ago I'd point destitute people to shelters and programs and carried McDonald's coupons for a few years (the kind you buy at Xmas for kids--or used to anyway). One day I started wondering why I was being "nanny" or "morals monitor"

Basically it comes down to this: if I have the money and the inclination to help someone on the street I figure I have to *give* the money and let them make their own damn choice. Its like giving any other "gift" for a holiday or event---if you give, then it is none of your business what the recipient does with the gift. He or she owns that now and its theirs to do as they like.

I don't always give and I can't always give but when I do, I figure that "give" means just that: I give it away and it is none of my business what the person does with it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. That makes sense...

Entrusting the money to someone else for their benefit does nothing for their dignity.

Thanks for your input.

[soleft]

6. I give money to whoever asks me

including Skinner

But sometimes I'll run in a store and buy food too

[rabid_nerd]

9. Can I have some money?

:)

http://www.herbriede.com/contribute

lol

[SoCalDem]

7. When my husband was working in Vegas, there was this guy

His sign read:

Who's Kidding Who??

I need a beer...

Please help ...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Damn! I'd pay him

just for being honest!

LOL!

[MiltonLeBerle]

13. In Chicago, there was this burn victim kid always on the El-

going car to car, asking for donations for surgery- there was also always a guy accompanying him. The burn victim himself was horribly scarred and disfigured.
I think it was Bob Greene who wrote about how he ahd wanted to put the kid in touch with people that could help him, probably for free or very little cost. But that the guy that was with him would always come up and cart the kid off- apparently the kid was the guy's mealticket, and he didn't anybody actually fixing him up.
I don't do the daily El thing anymore, haven't in a while, so I don't know if hr still walks the trains.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. That's so sad...

Maybe if he'd let them help the kid, there would've been help for him as well.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

16. If I was missing a leg I'd sure as hell want a drink

wouldn't you?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

17. GoddessOfGuinness doesn't want her money spent on alcohol?

heh :)