O.T. Speaking of Bums! Rant, sorta long.

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
Rant:
From another thread....

Ben Arown-Awile said:
Ed,
Hobos have been extinct for years. The spots by the railroad tracks are now occupied by Bums. A moral arbiter must be able to tell the difference.
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The spots by the railroad tracks aren't the only places occupied by Bums! :mad:
I guess I'm a cynical sonofabitch but I've always been suspicious of these people standing on some street corners, medians, and at the end of exit ramps off the freeway where traffic has a tendency to back up a great distance and remain there for a while.:grumpy:
A story told to me by a friend one day about one of these people in particular goes like this, "I needed somebody to help me go and load some tables and chairs on a trailer so I could haul them down home to Vian. I pulled up next to a corner where there was a pretty healthy looking guy with a sign that said, "Homeless, Hungry, Will Work for Food or Money." I asked him if he wanted to make a quick $40.00 for a couple of hours work. The guy told me, "Are you kidding me? This is just starting to be the busy time of day for this corner and if I leave to go make your measly $40,00 I will lose the potential $400.00 I'll make on this corner the next two hours!"
Of course I never gave anything to said people before anyway and now I tell other people not to and relate this story too them.:mad:

When we leave to go into Tulsa we pass one of these corners. The Church of David is there every Friday like clockwork and have a person on 7 corners at two intersections!
All I can say is the take must be very gratifying or they wouldn't be there every week!:grumpy:
Then at the end of the offramp where we get off to go home there is almost always someone there with their standard Homeless and Hungry signs, one of the corners inhabited by the CoD on Fridays.
Day before yesterday as we came back from town there was a new woman Bum there with the standard, Homeless, Hungry, sign.
Barb started chuckling and I said, "What?" Barb said, "That's sure funny because I see that old broad over at the Cherokee Casino all the time playing the slots. Now I know where she gets the money."

Then one day last week there was a guy in a wheelchair at the end of the offramp with the same, H,H, sign. I wondered if he was faking it or not.
He was there yesterday when we came back from town. Evidently he isn't faking it as Barb and a friend of our's saw another guy pushing him the other day, heading to the Cherokee Casino again!
Barb said she has seen him over there playing the slots as well.:mad:
You know, I don't mind helping someone out and when I was younger and happened to be down around Skid Row I would take some poor old guy into one of the greasy spoons and buy him a hamburger and still would. I've met some pretty damned nice people doing that no matter the reasons for them being in the shape they were in, usually their own fault but not always.:(
But as far as giving someone standing on a street corner a damned thing there isn't a chance of a snowball in hell that I would! :mad:
What pisses me off is that I'm sure every once in a while there may be someone there that really needs a little help and won't get it because of all the goddamned Bums!!!! :grumpy: :mad:



/Rant off.
 
That's a common scam here. I have a system. If they lie to me I still give them money, but if they say they are trying to get enough $$ for a bottle of booze I give the twice the normal amount cause they are being honest.
 
I know what you mean, Yvsa. Not too long ago I passed a homeless guy on the streetcorner on my way to work just about every morning holding a "Hungry. Need food" sign. A really young guy too. He couldn't be any older than myself. One day i get a wild hair and stop to ask him if he wants to make a quick 20 bucks mowing the lawn at my office. Keep in mind that the amount of grass here can be cut with a pushmower in less that 45 mins if you take your time. At 20 bucks he was making more than I am an hour, but hey, all I had was a 20 and you can't ask a bum for change. He flat turned me down. I couldn't believe it. My work wasn't a mile and a half away and all he'd have to do is take 45 mins to knock downt he weeds and get 20 bucks. I even told him that I would drive him back to his corner and grab him a bag lunch from Sonic after he was done. I was a little pi$$ed after that. I know that I have it better than most. My life isn't perfect and I don't have a solid gold toilet, but I am comfortable. I just can't see someone turning down help when they are ASKING for it with a SIGN.
From now on i just leave the beggers to their begging. Instead I donate money to the local soup kitchens and the like. At least i know the people there won't squander it.

Jake
 
There's a couple of such bums operating in my town at a highway intersection by the local Walmart. My mom's seen them "changing shifts" before. A friend of ours and her husband once tried to give one of them a couple of cheeseburgers they had bought for him at MacDonald's. The guy refused to take it, wanting money instead.

Bob
 
I don't have any personal experiance with bums because I have heard too many of these stories. On some video I saw (possibly in homeroom) a group took a camera and gave subway tokens to about 20 different bums and told them for mowing a medium size residential lawn they could make $20. One guy showed up. He explained that that one token could buy a pint of vodka. They gave him another token with the same offer, but at a different address. He didn't show up.

1 in 20 bums are willing to work, but not consistantly.

Same video they looked at a shelter with an employment office attached to the back. They get VERY few people who ever come in. Homeless is a state of being, being a bum is an occupation. People who are homeless can pull them selves out, we have made it easy enough that anyone can do it.
 
Hey! Watch it! :mad: I'm gonna report you to Local 666 of the Beggers and Panhandlers Guild Int'l. The BPGI takes a very dim view of casting asparagus on our hard-working members. You should try carrying all that heavy coinage to the local bank to be turned inta real money. We've had Brothers and Sisters sustain serious back injuries. And the traffic fumes!!! :grumpy:
 
We are all lost in illusion in one way or another. True probably the majority of people do not deserve help, but should we still help them in spite of that fact? I think we should unless we end up feeling resentment by doing it, which makes us accumulate more of a karmic load.

From the reincarnation perspective if an alcoholic asks for money are we helping him by saying no, where his desire for it remains, or if we give him money are we helping him fully indulge in the desire in this incarnation, and therefore maybe be free of it in future incarnations or even get tired of it in this life?

From a Christian perspective none of us can work for the grace we are given. It is given to us regardless of whether we deserve it or not, and the scriptures are pretty clear none of us really has done anything to deserve it.

I am reminded of this bible verse in Matthew 5:

" 43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
 
Tsimi I'm not talking about alchoholics. I'm talking about people who beg for a living. I've even considered trying it myself just too see what the take is in a day but there's no way I could stay out that long because of having to use the restroom, pain, and what have you.
But if I could I would donate the "take" to a worthwhile charity even though we could use any extra money.
Too me it just isn't "right" to make a living or supplement your income like that.:grumpy:
The other thing that pisses me off is that these people are misrepresenting themselves when they say they are Hungry and Homeless and then are seen playing the slots at the casino.
I've heard one story about a guy who stood on a corner all day and then when the traffic slowed walked across the street to the Quik-Trip Store, got into a late model Lexus and drove off, presumably home.:rolleyes: :mad:

Barb goes to the Cherokee Casino or Smokeshop maybe once or twice a week, something she enjoys, and just often enough it seems, wins enough to make it worthwhile.
Her winnings are much, much, greater than the days she spends $5.00-$10.00 and comes away with nothing. The winnings though also always seems to come when we can really use the extra. Karma?
I just look on it as a Blessing and living a good life.
Barb won $140.00 the other day playing the slots. Sometimes it's just $20.00 or $40.00 but it is welcomed.
I figure that if I can spend money for a knife I don't really need then Barb can do something she enjoys as well, thing is her hobby pays dividends while mine doesn't.:rolleyes: ;)
 
Because the demand exceeds the supply, I would not direct giving to those likely not to actually need the giving -- whoever they may be.

As for giving drugs to addicts, that is not a way I have elected to follow.
 
There was this guy here in Charleston that was always bumming quarters off of people all lunch. One guy told me that they guy told him he got like 40 bucks or something close every day from just standing there a couple hours.
 
Guy in the gas station on the Res in Utah told me he needed enough money to get to Reno. I gave him 50 cents.

He was missing an eye. It didn't look too bad, actually, just a squint with a little extra pink in the middle. When I came out of the store he spoke to me again:

"I just need to get drunk. I wasn't telling you the truth before."

I gave him a buck.



Ed Know
 
Ed Know said:
...I gave him 50 cents..."I just need to get drunk"...I gave him a buck...
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So he's supposed to get drunk on a buck and a half?
Ed, your generosity gives new meaning to the limits of compassion!
 
Ben Arown-Awile said:
So he's supposed to get drunk on a buck and a half?
Ed, your generosity gives new meaning to the limits of compassion!
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Hey, that's almost enough for half a bottle of MD 20/20. Besides, as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers.
 
I remember seeing, on the streets of Calcutta in 1979, a man whose forearm had a right angle bend in it.

He was a beggar.

A broken arm has to be held in position for a long time to heal. It is a disturbing aberation to see an arm that was not straightened, but held in an unnatural position to heal. The brief sighting I had of that gentleman has stayed in my mind for many years.

Some were mutilated as children to help with their profession.

In Rajgir, in front of the temple where the bodhi tree is, there were a lot of beggars. One day I got tired of walking by them without giving, so I went to the market and bought a bag of a plum-like local fruit. I started passing them out to the beggars. In what seemed like an instant there was a crowd of 30 or 40 beggars surrounding me, wailing with hands outstretched. My fruit supply soon gave out. As I held the last fruit I remember looking at a beautiful young woman dressed in rags, and an elderly woman. I gave the last fruit to the elderly woman. The young woman and I locked eyes. There was a deep communication, and I still carry her gaze with me today.

In Sri Lanka during the same time period, begging was not socially accepted as it was in India. There were few beggars there.

I rarely give to beggars now. I have to question if there is spiritual mutilation similar to the physical mutilations I have seen that go along with begging. Mayhaps a deception hurts worse than a malformed arm?
 
So he's supposed to get drunk on a buck and a half?
Ed, your generosity gives new meaning to the limits of compassion!>>> Ben

I'm sorry, Mr Around, I'm not a rich yuppie. He had a purse going, my dings were just part of it. I'd simplified the story, in truth he bumped me three times, and he got all my change-. Doesn't matter. Wasn't the point. I asked him how far along he was- he had 6 or 7 bucks and the Sun was still up. That was enough. Wasn't a Tom Hanks Movie where I kissed him for giving me the meaning of Life.

Yvsa- I've also considered trying panhandling just to see how it works. But like the statistical model which shows out of 30 or so women you ask to sleep with, one will provide, I never had the stomach to try.
I did sing for my supper at the Mission.


Ed Know
 
Ed Know said:
....But like the statistical model which shows out of 30 or so women you ask to sleep with, one will provide....
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I never had a woman turn me down.

It's not that I was a great lover, it's just that I knew which ones to ask.
 
Ed Know said:
...The women think they made it patently clear before you asked...
Click to expand...

You're on the right track Ed. Here's the secret of my success.

I would beam my thoughts into their soul through their eyes. Within a matter of seconds, I could tell if they would be receptive to my advances.

I only went after the ones who reached out and grabbed my crotch.

Except for that time with Ernie, the transvestite, my method was infallible.
 
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