Yesterday, I read a post from a Facebook friend about how she avoided giving to people by the side of the road or in parking lots who were asking for charity. Her friends let loose with a series of comments trashing the poor and desperate, each one more callous than the other. This was my reply.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand how anyone can believe the things that I read in all of your comments. That these thoughts were shared in response to the Facebook post of your friend leads me to believe that each of you was being honest, and my heart is heavy with what you had to say.
We have all seen them, standing in a parking lot or on a corner at a busy intersection, sign in hand telling of their plight and asking for help. Few communities are free of people in this situation, forced to have to ask anyone they can find for help. I have seen them, and because, like most people, I don’t carry cash, I haven’t given; instead, I have just turned my face in shame to avoid meeting their gaze. (I will change that because of what I read today. Thank you.)
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand, but I would like to know if you have ever lost everything. As well, I would like to also know if you have a solution to a math problem I can’t seem to figure out. You see, there are only a finite number of jobs out there and a larger number of people out of work who might be qualified for them. When you factor in the number of jobs for which many of these people aren’t qualified, what do you get? I don’t know, either. (I suck at math.) But I see a problem. Do you see it? I wonder if you thought about that problem when you typed, “I've seen those people(.) I told the woman standing in Walmart parking lot to walk inside get a a (sic) job just like the rest of us do. Lol(.)” The “Lol” at the end kind-of made me sick, by the way. I mean, do you really find whatever might have happened to this woman funny?
Many of you seem convinced that all of the people baking in the sun or soaking in the rain or freezing in the snow are there because they are lazy or dishonest. “We have all thought the same thing when seeing someone who "might" need help. Back in the day we knew most of the people in our towns, at least I did…so helping others out was so much easier. There are so many agencies any of these people could go to for help today there is no reason for them to solicit money in a parking lot.” I wonder if you have ever had so little that you had to use one of the “so many agencies” to which you refer. Have you ever had to navigate the bureaucratic maze involved with getting any kind of government assistance? Have you actually researched what opportunities for help really are available? There aren’t as many as you think, and the number is shrinking. Not only is there not enough money available, access to it is not as simple as you might think.
One of the most popular back-to-work/retraining assistance programs in Pennsylvania has been cut so much that many of the locations to which people could easily get have shuttered their doors, and without a car or public transportation, many are physically unable to even begin the process. It’s not just in PA, either; this is happening everywhere. I point this out because I want to believe that, if you knew, you might try to not seem so callous.
"’Are there no prisons?’
"’Plenty of prisons...’
"’And the Union workhouses.’ demanded Scrooge. ‘Are they still in operation?’
"’Both very busy, sir...’
"’Those who are badly off must go there.’
“’Many can't go there; and many would rather die.’
"’If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’”
I also want to believe you didn’t realize that is how you sound.
The same goes for you, too. “I believe that there are enough federal and state assistance programs available for all those who need it. Recent statistics show that a person can make more money on assistance than working full time on minimum wage in PA. I recommend these people seek the many services available - I feel no guilt by passing them by as I say a short prayer for their well-being.” As with many things in this world, just because you believe it to be doesn’t make it so. The fact is that there are NOT enough federal and state assistance programs. Furthermore (again), the ones that do exist don’t have enough money to go around.
For the sake of argument, I will assume that we can all agree on one thing: there is a problem. Something is wrong somewhere that leads to these people standing there and making all of us uncomfortable, and it would be for the benefit of everyone if we could find a solution. I bet we both agree that your statistic about assistance vs a minimum-wage income is disturbing. I can’t say for sure what your beef with that is, but mine is that we expect anyone to live on the current minimum wage. There is an entrenched reluctance among those on the right to fix that, and I have yet to hear an objection that doesn’t crumble under the weight of logic. In the meantime, there are people crumbling under the weight of economic injustice and crippling poverty.
One more observation: if you’re going to pray for the people you ignore, your supplication would be more meaningful if you were willing to accept that you might be the answer God provides.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand, but I have a feeling you don’t either. “As they say give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach a man a (sic) fish and he can eat for a lifetime. I'll bet if you offered them free financial counceling (sic) they wouldn't take you up on it. When we lived in Philadelphia, my husband gave a homeless man this jacket as it was very cold. Next day my husband saw said man without a coat and he had a bottle!!!!” Wait…what? Your platitude about fish doesn’t make any sense. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, and it didn’t make sense then, either. You might as well advocate against Band-Aids, lest people unlucky enough to cut themselves avoid learning how not to bleed. We are trying to teach people to fish, but what are they to do when there aren’t enough fish to go around? Last time I checked, it’s been about 2000 years since someone was able to do piscatorial multiplication. Until he returns, what's your solution?
I am reminded of the job retraining facilities I mentioned above, one in particular that was closed a while ago. At the same time, many of the people who used that facility were evicted because no one stepped in to avoid the sale of their apartment complex (the only public housing complex in town) so that it could be converted to student housing. Many people, some working minimum-wage jobs, some out of work but trying to use the assistance programs available, were tossed out on the street with nowhere to go. Exactly what type of “financial counceling” (sic) are you betting they would turn down? The suggestion is not only condescending, it’s ridiculous.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand where these attitudes come from. Well, I didn’t until I read this. “My kids come first, and that means when I am with them I do not stop for people like that. When I am alone, I may give them some food, or tell them where to find a job. But that is it.” The “people like that” are you. The “people like that” are me. The “people like that” are all of us, and, you know, one day they may be those kids you choose to keep hidden from the realities of this world.
I looked at your profile, and I saw the picture of the cross and the memes about faith and “One nation under God,” so I will assume you’re a Christian. Let me remind you of what the namesake for your faith had to say in St. Matthew’s gospel about the coming of the Son of Man. I am not a believer, myself, but I recognize a good command when I read one.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
(By the way, I looked; he said nothing at all about the Pledge of Allegiance.)
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand why you automatically assume the worst. The other day, I volunteered at a facility for homeless veterans. There were at least 40 that evening (though most evenings see more than that) who came for a meal and who avail themselves of the services the facility offers. All served in our armed forces, and all have been (or still are) in the streets. Some are mentally ill, and there are so many of them that there is no way that the system can keep up with them. Some of them at one point had as much as you and I, and, for as many reasons as there were people there, they lost it all.
What they all had in common was that none of them planned for their lives to end up this way. Life happened to them, and if you don't think that it can happen to you, if you think it impossible that you might one day be in the same situation and have to rely on the empathy of a stranger, you are mistaken. I am not a believer, but even I understand that there, but for his grace, go I.