[AAA]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')I would say at the minimum, government should be required to provide a secure place for everyone to sleep. If there aren't enough physical shelters, then they should organize tent cities. They don't want to do that, of course, since you can't pretend there isn't a problem if you have to look at a hobo-ville in every day. It' more palatable for society to keep the homeless out of sight, under the bridges and in the back alleys.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AAA', 'I') would require a drug test be given before anyone could qualify for govt assistance in any manner.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AAA', 'I') would require a drug test be given before anyone could qualify for govt assistance in any manner.

[JJ]

the old man worked in advertising, and said they used psychological computer profiles to determine which pop or top forty or whatever music to play that would sell more over the counter medication and more alcohol.

he also said he got the NASA contract for a manned walk in space by getting the NASA big boys drunk during a martini lunch and convincing them that a televised spacewalk would sell the space program to the chumps, er I mean taxpayers...

he said a lot of things which may or may not have been true but one thing I was convinced of was drug and alcohol use is definitely encouraged in our society; look at your typical college kid, a walking alcohol advertisment...

[Ayame]

Well I can tell you now that if it weren't for my family I'd probably be homeless. Sure I'm pretty smart, I can read and write and use the computer and I went to university and got a good degree. One thing I didn't count on was severe mental illness. Didn't hit until I was 22. Up until then sure I had bad and good days but nothing like that. Couldn't even walk down the street. Mildly better now but no psych. medication will work for me. Anyway just wasn't counting on that **** for my life. God really threw me a curve ball. So before you judge a homeless person remember that they might not be a druggie or they might have become a druggie to escape their reality (abuse/mental illness etc.). We are not all playing on a level playing field In fact for some of us it's like trying to play call of duty online with a ping rate of over 400.

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hardtootell-2', ' ')IMO they will die then. Either sooner, without help or later, with some help. In the end, they may be failed experiments socially and evolutionarily. No amount of intervention from me can really change that substantially. I have to admit to myself that there a lot of things over which I have little power. I am not without compassion and I am not being a defeatist. Just a realist.

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ell, that list may be true for Saratoga New York, but in my part of Florida there is just the Salvation Army and one church group that does meals for the homeless. The homeless can only stay three nights out of a week.

[Olaf]

Sometimes I give, sometimes I don't. I've been threatened and threatened back. In Jamaica a guy followed me around calling me Rambo (I was in the Navy on liberty) then threatend to cut me up when I wouldn't give him anything. My quickly approaching shipmates and my sudden aggressive demeanor changed his tune quick.

If I give, I don't bother worrying about what they use it for. I don't give what I can't afford. I'm not a saint, why should I expect a beggar to be? I do it to feel like I helped another human being, whether or not I really did or not is up to them.

Olaf

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him" - James D. Miles

[deMolay]

Thank you Wildrose and Threadbear for the kind comments. To your question on my wife, Threadbear. It has been 5 months since she finished her treatments. And she is just now starting to eat small meals. She still has a lot of pain at times. I am amazed at her fighting spirit. But then again when she was born in the early 50's, she weighed only 1 lb. 2 oz's. Her mother died in childbirth, she survived without an incubator being born in a small country hospital. They had no way to care for her as premee care had not been invented. The old family doctor took her home to her grandmother in his suit coat pocket and asked her grandmother to do her best. She lived in a bread box wrapped in cotton balls and the old girl had to feed her with an eyedropper. She is a very strongwilled woman with a huge heart. And a fighting spirit like I have seen in no macho man on earth. I gave up years ago trying to get her stop giving away food and money to street kids and stop bringing home derelect kids from broken homes with broken hearts. And being a champion of the lost causes of society. She is one fiesty little Bantie Hen. What the hell can a guy say, when I've been in a lineup at the grocery store and some old lady without enough money to pay for a few small items of food, starts crying and putting her small items back. And the wife steps up and puts them back in the old woman's bag and pays for them herself and then makes the proud old woman feel like she is part of the family and everything is OK. Then asks me as we leave if I minded her spending $10 on that old woman. Best just shut up and try to measure up. Anyways like Forrest Gump sez, That's all I got to say about that.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', ' ')and then makes the proud old woman feel like she is part of the family and everything is OK.

[Jotapay]

So, who wins the nature/nurture argument here, hm?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')size=150]New home, but back to panhandling
Couple given home return to streets to pay bills[/size]

[efarmer]

Great vignette of your wife deMolay and I understand how proud of her you are as well.
Yes there are career panhandlers and people who are wealthy on TV and other media by begging for the poor and living off the cut they take, but it doesn't stop the beautiful trait of many people to size each other up, one on one, and decide to be generous and decent without expecting a thing in return or attempting to go past instinct for vetting if it is the right thing to do.