"Hey. Do you have any change? No. How 'bout a smoke?"
Every single morning I hear it. At least from the ones that can cognitively form words through their huff, booze, who knows what induced fog . I do not give anything to the beggars yet they still ask me for the same shit every time. Do I have a target on my mellon? No...no target, but there is some sort of precedence that has been set up downtown. The real problem is that there is actually an infrastructure for Pan Handlers to make a go of it. The problem is you! No not you, the other one over there. You who give them your pocket scraps and cigs. You may think you are being sweetly and contributing to some iota of happy in the world...but you are not. That $1 you gave the obvious substance abuser...he bought rubber cement to huff and then shit himself at Portage Place. That dude who said he " just needed a couple bucks to get home." went and bought crack and didn't make it home. You are helping nothing by giving the Pan Handlers your tokens of wealth. You are actually making every morning that I wake up and have to repeatedly say "No!" a painful experience.
When you give them money, they expect it from every person that walks by. Why try actually looking for a job, cleaning yourself up, exploring a sense of self, using an actual toliet...when you can just get some Suburbanite House-Bitch or hipster flake douche to throw you $2 everyday and all you have to do is look like a piece o' shit. Here's an idea? You really wanna help them? Do you really wanna earn yourself into some bullshit kingdom? Take them home with you. Feed them. No? Then make 10 bagged lunches before work and hand them out to the beggars when they ask for change. Oh...they won't take it. That's because they don't want actual "good" things, they want shit. They want to feed habits and make all the pain dull and drift into a day long blur. Do you really wanna be the cool kid on the street?... make a sidewalk community stand by just outside Citi Place. Have all the nice little pamphlets about government education grants and adult programs to help people make resumes. Have a big smile on your face and really try to help people. I dare you. I've seen some groups try this. It did one thing, it cleared the area out for a while of that dreg element. So, please...stop throwing beggars your bullshit trinkets and just say, "No"...or "No thank you." if you please. Just spare me, and the legion of others that get harangued daily, from your pathetic attempt at making things better. You're not.
Angry Downtownite