by Michael Douglas Carlin
THE FINE LINE
The man who hammered me about giving might be right and tonight that homeless man might be freezing cold on the street, but at least he has eaten well.
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THE FINE LINE
Gave a homeless dude a ten dollar bill tonight. Got hammered for it, too. He went immediately into 7-11 and bought some food to fight his hunger. Before he got to the cash register, I had a guy come up to me and scream at me for giving to a homeless man. "You're not helping him...you are enabling him."
There might be a fine line, and I need to know more about it. But learning about it from books just isn't a possibility; you have to dive into the pool to learn about it.
Why do we give? Who do we give to?
Down-and-Out vs. Drop Out
The down-and-out are in a bad position through no fault of their own, or maybe it is all their fault. An act of God causes their houses, village or livelihood to be destroyed. Or they had it all and just made some bad choices.
Any one of us could make some bad choices that land us on hard times. Any one of us could get hit over the head at the ATM, not remember who we are, and wind up on the streets.
Since the meltdown in 2008, more folks seem to have fallen on hard times, and there might be many decisions to be made about who is deserving. With some help, most of those folks can work their way back to productive society. Giving them a hand up is not enabling, it is helping.
Enabling continued bad behavior might not be wise. I don't always know the difference. The drop-out might be angling to scam money, but to what quality of life? I mean, there isn't a Rolls Royce involved. Seems like panhandling is a lot of work for not too much money.
I know that, when this homeless man told me he was hungry, I could see it in every expression of his face and body. He didn't go for an eight-ball or a forty ounce beer, he went straight for the food.
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