Writing this in response to someone’s rant about pan-handlers that could be found just about anywhere, from Walmart parking entry-ways to freeway off ramps to street corners or the mouth of alleyways. In the back of our minds we think “yeah, all they want is beer (or drug) money to feed their habits” when actually a majority of the time it’s not true. Some are truly struggling and have become humbled enough to beg for every dime that they can get their hands on. Better than stealing isn’t it?
Speaking as one who has been there (more than once I’m afraid) I’ll answer with a soft voice but I won’t answer for all of the homeless because I’m not a collective I’m an individual who’s part of the whole. Yet my story isn’t singular. There are countless of others who are or have been there.
Ok, talk about stacked decks. True, my life it seems, is one big stacked deck after another. I ascend and then I fall back down again… repeatedly. But, I do continue to pull myself back up … with the help of friends and occasionally the state welfare agencies. Sometimes it’s enough of a help that I’m actually able to fend for myself and be comfortable and get out of the survival mode and actually start living. Sometimes, that life is short-lived and something goes kablooee and I’m on that “downward spiral”. Trust me, I will try to stop it best as I can. Sometimes however I’d slide for a while until I can see the edge and then scramble before going over, (ya, speaking in metaphors here but the best analogy I can come up with). Sometimes that slide is just to slick to halt the downward progression.
Each state has it’s own welfare system, and each state dictates a policy of help and how much. Some states will go the route of the revolving door and others will do (what I call) the circus route and make the person requesting assistance jump through hoops to receive the help they need (food, cash assistance, etc.). A lot of people become dependent upon the system and sadly more than a few have abused it severely. I’ve seen people live quite well off “the government’s tit”, while for others the milk is rather bitter and sour. Sometimes it’s too sour.
For panhandlers that really want to get out of the crap-storm they’re in … a couple of bucks (even a $10 or a generous $20) won’t do it. It ($10-20) may cover for a couple of days at best. Remind yourself how far ten bucks will carry ya on an average day if you got no food at home, because a lot of bills hit you at once and you’re waiting for the next pay period … try pretending and then multiply that by 365 days or even as short as 180 days.
I’m not saying start writing out a check for half your savings or anything like that but if all you can do is all you can do then all you can do is enough, because at least you’re trying to help… and that is what counts.
The one thing that sometimes keeps a person from helping themselves or getting help is pride. Sometimes some folks want to live that way. The whys are as individual as the people themselves; low self-esteem, extreme bitterness at society where they want to “disassociate” themselves from it (in their minds they are doing just that), fear … and that one covers a lot. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of just plain trying. It’s human, it’s something that isn’t always easy to control or overcome. Sometimes biting the bullet breaks a few teeth. Kinda hard to continue with that kind of pain isn’t it?
Others do want to get out and some manage to stay out. But it’s tough. Very tough. Bad work histories really are what kills the average Joe trying to stand back up again. It’s a long long hard process and without the “right” kind of support and right kind of support group… they’ll keep sliding. One analogy I heard that seems apt… like trying to run on a sheet of ice slanted slightly up hill on a warm day in worn out sneakers. Get enough momentum going and you just might have that part-time/full-time job and get that income started and maybe make enough (combined from the other job — or two) to get that deposit/first and last month’s rent for that run-down apartment building you’re hoping to get into. You might make that in two or three paychecks. Ahh but wait.. a paycheck might be two weeks apart… three weeks for the first one in some cases. So how to keep showering and clothes cleaned during that time? How to feed yourself (even better… how to feed the family?). Saving money, enough of it is very hard under those conditions. Minimum wage just-doesn’t-cut it when one is out of …well, just about every thing.
Ah the welfare system … that’s what it’s there for. Yes.
Some people are just natural screw-ups. You’ve seen them… at work, school, day to day stuff. Even they would screw up something like the welfare system and are denied the help they so desperately need because papers didn’t get turned in on time, not enough job applications in the job search, not keeping the job long enough and so on and so on, (remember… been there and done that okay?). The workers at the welfare offices do their jobs and some of them do it quite well. But they’re just as frustrated as the ones trying to get the help. Very hard for them to sort out the scammers and the desperate. Very hard to sort out the ones who have the capabilities and the ones who need more help than they realize. Very hard to work with those who are ignorant or unskilled. It’s a tough job and to make it even tougher they have to adhere to policy as dictated by the state.
They’re very much (in my experience), in that “you’re asking us for help? Prove it to me by doing what I need you to do. Show me that you’re really trying here”. Some will try hard, some will try for a little bit, some not at all, some will try but have that infamous “stacked deck”. How do you know which is which?
Lots of jobs out there but lots of jobs that aren’t paying the money needed to get out of whatever hole that some people are finding themselves in. Like I said, minimum wage just doesn’t cut it, which I believe is .. what? now $7.25 multiplied into 38-40 hours then minus taxes and then minus food for a week or two weeks then minus shelter fees (hotels or cheap apartments) then minus transportation (public and private?) then … wow a “couple of bucks” left over. Well at least I can eat at the McDonalds I’m working at… oh no, in a lot of restaurants you gotta pay half the cost of the food if you didn’t bring your lunch.
Stacked deck indeed. A stacked deck and a few aces missing.
It’s very tiring work. Even more so when the light at the end of the tunnel is just a pin-prick far far away. It’s there but damn it takes a while to get there. Sometimes not soon enough. Reality rears it’s ugly head; rent is due, get hurt on the job, get really sick, other bills come in, car breaks down (because it was a POS to begin with), and so on. Kinda like what John Lennon sang once… “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Pretty stressful alright. Pretty stressful enough as it is without succumbing to the numbing effects of alcohol and drugs. Pretty stressful without losing one’s temper when things go wrong at home and end up taking it out on family or friends.
We can help out best that we may and best that we do. But we all got our own lives to live don’t we? What we each earn we’ve learned to live within those means and the thought of giving is sometimes a bitter pill, sometimes not. It’s how we see things and it’s a measure of our character and above all it’s a measure of the amount of love we have in our hearts.
(excerpt from an e-mail sent to a friend)
It is said that the living conditions of the poor is a good yard-stick for how well a nation’s economy and society is doing. America’s society is crumbling anyway in my opinion … little by little, collapsing under it’s own weight, same as what happened to the Soviet Union (though different reasons), just got too big to sustain itself… particularly in the class differences. If the welfare state produces a society of beasts then it’s their (the state’s) own damned fault. Lowering education standards so that the slow kids can keep up. Fighting a drug war that’s probably the biggest joke of the civilized world. People literally fighting to survive to keep their (and their kids) head above water. Christ said “the poor will be with you always…” he meant that and it’s up to US and how we treat them completely and equally. Many complain that the poor refuses to work. NOT TRUE… remember me? Was I refusing work you gave me? Remember where I came from and where I went BACK to after the work fell through (not your fault and not laying the blame on your doorstep), remember where I slept during one of the coldest winters our area had seen in a long time, all the while trying to get food stamps and whatever work I can find.
Friends I had by the blessings of the Lord I’ll agree. There are many like me however struggling, honestly, the best that they can circumstances allowing.
Criminals need to be taken care of but remember what (partly) births criminality. Greed/avarice, sloth, gluttony, pride. All of those are symptoms of the higher classes. Thus the poor are left with envy, lust and wrath, which makes them criminals… but not ALL (of them).
Proverbs 6:16-19, but this is a different list, covering pride, lies, murder, evil plans, swiftness in sin, lies again, causing conflict. Clearly not the same. But none the less by the same people making up 4 out of the 7. But again… not ALL (of them).
So it’s no wonder why the world is in such turmoil. Satan wrought his plans well and as a popular movie says: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.” So these acts of turmoil, strife, pain, suffering, violence, hatred, and all the rest of the list of sins are whose fault again?
True, don’t blame the devil, he just offers us suggestions, hints, ideas, thoughts. We still choose in the end. He’ll let human nature take it’s natural course, sit back and reap the benefits. Same way that corporate CEO’s and other positions of (true) authority does… or is it the other way around? They follow his example.
The various churches aren’t being too much better, though they DO attend to the poor, yet the fine buildings, symbols … the $$ that built them… how many MORE could’ve been fed? How many MORE could’ve been clothed, housed and given work. They take in money and build vast, ornate, buildings and things for those who can afford them, via donations. Misappropriations? Not necessarily, yet when I drive by a huge church building or see a gargantuan cross visible for miles and so on… I dunno. This is with any Christian religion and other faiths as well. Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men”.
We’ve been warned time and again and fail to repent as a nation, as a planet. So no wonder the poor riot. One author speculated that the poor had rioted when they learned that Jesus died on the cross, pinned there by the Romans and their own Priests (Og Mandino, The Christ Commission).
Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” How many of this country’s millionaires will seriously contemplate doing that. How many of the middle class are willing to do it.
Recently there was an article about someone taking an $80,000.00 winning lottery ticket and dropping it into a church’s offering plate. Article went on to say, “just in time… because the church’s air conditioning unit has been broken for a while.” How many people/families could’ve been fed with $80,000.00 ? I wonder.