Why do so many everyday people scorn those who are struggling?
If you want to help someone like the homeless, take the time to learn how
I’m not gonna rehash all the details behind the sign pictured above. Rather, I feel it’d be far more useful to use it as a catalyst to introduce some context into discussions like this.
So many people grow indignant at the mere sight of a homeless person — as if it were a personal insult. Interestingly, most folks I’ve met in my life never say a word about the real leeches in our society: the rich, the bankers, the celebrities, and the corporations who live off public subsidies, tax breaks, media programming, and inside deals. But that’s another article.
For now, I want to address the sentiment that a vulnerable person should automatically accept any offer of perceived help in order to be taken seriously and deemed “deserving” of support.
FYI: If you see a random panhandler and offer them a short-term “job,” there are countless reasons why they might decline your “offer.”
Here are just a few:
Not all homeless people have the skillset needed to complete the task at hand; not all of them have the fitness, energy, or health to do manual labor.
Many homeless people are struggling with mental health issues — from PTSD to substance abuse disorder and beyond. In an even remotely compassionate, sane society, vulnerable souls would have access to holistic, non-corporate health care instead of being bullied into proving their worth.
Specific to the incident mentioned above, $15 an hour is a poverty wage in The Land of Opportunity™. In a good panhandling spot, a homeless person can earn close to that rate (or more).
Even if they tried doing the work, three hours of wages do very little in terms of the big picture.
If a homeless person with a successful panhandling spot walks away for three hours, they may lose the spot to another opportunistic homeless person. This goes double for women who have to fight tooth and nail to maintain popular spots in NYC when men aggressively move in.
Since homeless people are lumped together into a stereotype of criminal junkie crackheads, they may be wary of doing work on someone’s property — out of public scrutiny — for fear of being accused of stealing, slacking, or something worse.
Homeless women (and some young males) will simply not accept offers of “help” — especially from men. I recall a woman I regularly helped telling me about a man who promised her $100 in cash but requested that she come with him to the ATM a few blocks away to get it. She knew better than to follow him. Other women tell me about men offering to pay for a hotel room. You can fill in the rest.
If the man in the photo above felt divinely guided to give a homeless man help, he could've just handed him the money or simply bought him whatever he specifically needed.
Instead, people — many of whom are just a few bad breaks away from homelessness — assume they know what’s in another person’s heart. They believe in media fear-mongering and fake news.
Like good little capitalists, they also use “having a job” as the barometer for someone’s value.
Are there some dangerous and/or deceptive homeless people? Of course, there are — particularly the men. My work has mostly focused on women because they even get abused by their male counterparts.
Even so, most of those who’ve landed on the streets don’t want to be there and aren’t part of some elaborate conspiracy to separate you from that one-dollar bill in your hand.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
Educate yourself before speaking on a topic.
Save your skeptical, paranoid vitriol for the real scam artists, e.g. billionaire “welfare queens” like Elon Musk.
If you want to learn more about homeless people, get to know a few of ‘em.
Develop some sense of class consciousness.
If giving is truly in your heart (and you know it is), discover how to do that productively.
Allocate some time to undisturbed contemplation and prayer before choosing how to best help the least of your brethren.
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No matter what, please spread the word by sharing the above links far and wide! Thank you, as always, for your kind and generous support. And if you cross paths with a homeless woman or any vulnerable soul, remember to be friendly and compassionate.
I think there might be a big difference in homeless people in NY and here. I stopped early on helping at the church where I was going, where they had a food bank and also handed out clothes. A man there was on disability but worked 2 jobs, and then came for food. A woman was waiting and we still had to set up the tables. She took out the latest cell phone and called friends to come and help, but then heard it was volunteer work and immediately called back to tell them... an old woman complained that the bread was frozen. Several tried to exchange the canned food at the store for money, so we had to scratch out the bar codes. People donated boxes of fresh fruit, but the homeless did not want that. They stood rotting in the kitchen. So it seems like the homeless are quite different from the indeed, needy you help out ! At the time I had recently lost my husband and was all but rich myself. They had a sign-up sheet with a maximum wage (about 1150 bucks) to come to the food bank, I had less than half of that but I had a home.... so was disqualified LOL. When I saw all this, I gave up on the homeless hereabouts. Very different indeed, from your experiences, where there is really need.
I so appreciate your insights, Mickey. I've long wondered at the hostility people feel toward those with psychiatric problems, or homeless people. I suppose it's complicated (for some it's fear, I suspect. We "modern" humans have so much bloody fear in us!?) But lack of compassion is a huge problem among us, too. Sigh. Bless you for your solid conscience, practical kind acts, & ability to be so articulate in expressing important things to your readers.