Homeless Peple on the Street

[Lycan]

I live in a really small town in Tx so I don't see homeless people. But it seems to me the best thing to do would be to give them food and blankets and such instead of money.

 

[jimbob]

THought you'd all like this

 

[lilithu]

Im worried that if I do give some money to a homeless person, it might interfer with thier karma, and the person might end up living a good life, when they was supposed to live an impoverished one, and when the homeless person reincarnates, another impoverished life will be lived.

What if the person's karma was to start living a better life instead of staying impoverished? Wouldn't you be interfering with their karma by refusing help then? (As if some change or a few dollars would actually cause them to live a good life.)

We don't know where a person is in terms of their karma. They could still be burning off bad karma from the past or they could have already burned if off and are headed up or they could have used up their good karma and are headed down. We simply don't know. And we don't know what role we ourselves are playing in their karma. The only thing that we can do is respond to the choices in our own lives as best we can.

----

It warms my heart that many people have already voiced how I feel. Frubals to all of you!

I give a buck when someone asks, when I can. Sometimes I'm in a bad mood or a hurry or feeling poor and I don't give, which is unfortunate. But when I do give money, I never worry about what the person is going to do with it. It's a gift, with no conditions attached. I won't presume to know better than the person what they should do with their money. And even when I don't give money, I always look them in the eye and acknowledge their existence when I decline. Money is voluntary; but we all owe each other respect as fellow human beings.

 

[Circle_One]

Circle, I give you credit for coming to the assistance of this person, but what in the hell were you thinking when you trashed McDonald's? Where did the "help" become anger at the surroundings? Why in the world would you take your anger out on your surroundings? This is something that boggles my mind. Even in a football or soccar game, or perhaps baseball or basketball game, the anger is misdirected, it seems to me. There was absolutely no reason to take out your anger on the McD's right? What in the world would posesses you to do that? I just don't get it and this is a great deal of reason for some of our problems in this world, ie: misdirected anger.

Martha, I didn't mean it in the sense that you are thinking. I meant that because of our quarrel, the McDonald's was trashed. That usually happens when, in a fight, people are being thrown across tables and such. When I said fight, I also didn't mean a small yelling match, I meant I got into a physical, no-holding-out fight with these guys. And in doing so, being a small, barely over 5 foot girl, fighting physically with two 6 foot jock guys, I was thrown around a lot, landed on things in the McDonalds and with the force of my being thrown, happened to break them when I landed upon them.
I would never misdirect my anger in such a way as you mentioned and I agree wholeheartedly with what you said. I just really didn't have much choice on which things I landed or if they broke upon my landing on them.

 

[EnhancedSpirit]

What if they don't want your money? There are some people on the streets who are there because they choose to be. I know several vagrant (spelling?) people who have plenty of money, collect some sort of chech every month, but live very meager lives. There was a famous 'homeless person' here in Melbourne. We all called her 'crazy Jane'. Well Jane did not make it through this last winter. They found her dead behind a 7-11. The story in the newspaper said that she had over $200 in her pocket. And she had a living will in her possession. She had a huge account and left it to her sister, 'who never judged her for the way she chose to live.'

 

[martha]

Circle, I understand.

My only advice is this, when you come in contact with someone who is begging for a hand out, don't avert your eyes from them. Aparrently from what I have read in this book that I mentioned and from my own personel perception of people in general, the most beautiful gift one can give is looking into their eyes and acknowledging them as human beings. Whether you chose to give something or not, please ,acknowledge their life as a human, acknowledge their existance with dignity. The one thing that they all feel is being shunned, being ignored, as if they didn't exist. Please acknowledge their existance, even if you have to look them in the eye and say, "Sorry, I can't give you anythying today." Can you imagine going through life and having not one person look at you,.... every day?...... and you know why!
Just look them in the eye and acknowledge their being as a human, please. There but for the grace of God, go I. It could be any one of us , any day, really. The homeless of the past are not necessarily the homeless of the present. Have pity beloved, have compassion.

 

[armageddon]

You walk by a homeless person on the street. What do you do and why?

generally, i would probably give him some money to hopefully turn his world around. either that or buy him something to eat so at least i know that my money wouldnt go to waste on drugs, alcohol, or some kind of drug.

 

[AtheistAJ]

If they are potheads who spend every dollar they beg for or steal on dope like most runaway teens of Portland, Oregon, no. I hate those little socialist hobos. I donate to charities of my choice quite regularly though.

 

[Kowalski]

Sometimes I give money, other times I walk by, but I have never insulted a homeless person and I never would. What do you do?

Sometimes it's hard to tell, it's a fact that a proportion of them were making a good living out of faking it.
One guy here was claiming benefits, and travelling around begging, he was making far more than alot of working people. And it's true, for many, the money goes on booze and drugs. I usually say no to scroungers, charity begins at home as we say here.

K

 

[Sunstone]

I figure that about a third to half of the people living on the street have emotional and mental problems keeping them there. I once heard a shock jock on the radio say that the economy was so good anyone who wanted a job could get one. The next day, working in a local soup kitchen, I saw a man receive directions from God by talking to his own reflection in a spoon. It occured to me that that man was not likely to hold down a job no matter how good the economy. Many people who live on the streets are in the same boat. They don't have the mental or emotional health to hold down a job.

 

[glasgowchick]

For a long time, I gave money to the homeless, I just hate to see them sitting around the streets freezing..I have always wanted to open up some kind of free place where they could come and eat, sleep, wash or whatever..It wasnt until recently that my hubby brought it to my attention, A lot of these people do have shelters to go to but some of them chose not to go, there was also a tv programm on about the homeless and a lot of them also bragged about how much they can make in one day begging, believe me, they can make more in one day begging than we could working for a weeks wages..Yes I still give them money now and then but not just as often, I keep saying, next time I will buy them something warm toeat and drink instead of giving money, that way I will know they have a full stomache and my money has went been put to good use... :bounce

 

[michel]

For a long time, I gave money to the homeless, I just hate to see them sitting around the streets freezing..I have always wanted to open up some kind of free place where they could come and eat, sleep, wash or whatever..It wasnt until recently that my hubby brought it to my attention, A lot of these people do have shelters to go to but some of them chose not to go, there was also a tv programm on about the homeless and a lot of them also bragged about how much they can make in one day begging, believe me, they can make more in one day begging than we could working for a weeks wages..Yes I still give them money now and then but not just as often, I keep saying, next time I will buy them something warm toeat and drink instead of giving money, that way I will know they have a full stomache and my money has went been put to good use... :bounce

We have a particular problem here, where I live, with these homeless people. They come from the North, and the Midlands expecting to be able to do well down here, and find that there is little difference.

(Being a seaside Town, there is a lot of casual labour in the summer months, which is why I think they come).

For ages, the local council have been asking residents not to give these folk money; it just makes them less likely to try to make it on their own, and it encourages more to come here, if they know there's easy pickings.

If I am asked for money, I very rarely give it; I have been 'caught' so many times by people to whom I have given 'for a cup of tea' - seeing them dash into a tobaconist or off licence (Booze shop for you Americans, if you aren't aware of the term).

If someone asks me for money for food, I now say to them "O.K, I'll buy you a meal" - and I take them to a cafe, wherever, and I pay for the food. I usually chat to them while they eat; some have incredibly sad stories, and yes, Sunstone, there is a lot of mental ilness out there - schizophrenia being the most common. I don't know how many of you know schizophrenics.......they are hard work; just one wrong word, a glance at the wrong moment, and they are off......... But I guess being able to befriend them is a reward in itself.

 

[glasgowchick]

We have a particular problem here, where I live, with these homeless people. They come from the North, and the Midlands expecting to be able to do well down here, and find that there is little difference.

(Being a seaside Town, there is a lot of casual labour in the summer months, which is why I think they come).

For ages, the local council have been asking residents not to give these folk money; it just makes them less likely to try to make it on their own, and it encourages more to come here, if they know there's easy pickings.

If I am asked for money, I very rarely give it; I have been 'caught' so many times by people to whom I have given 'for a cup of tea' - seeing them dash into a tobaconist or off licence (Booze shop for you Americans, if you aren't aware of the term).

If someone asks me for money for food, I now say to them "O.K, I'll buy you a meal" - and I take them to a cafe, wherever, and I pay for the food. I usually chat to them while they eat; some have incredibly sad stories, and yes, Sunstone, there is a lot of mental ilness out there - schizophrenia being the most common. I don't know how many of you know schizophrenics.......they are hard work; just one wrong word, a glance at the wrong moment, and they are off......... But I guess being able to befriend them is a reward in itself.

Hi Michel, I could agree with that, It really is better to put some food in these peoples stomache's, I have only known one schizophrenia, she coukd be pretty scary at times, one minute she was all happy and would talk to you like she was your best friend, then the next minute she would walk by you like she has never known you, sometimes the way she dressed was kind of outragous, other times very smart...

 

[Quiddity]

I give them money.

~Victor

 

[Darkdale]

It's something I don't typically worry about. I haven't seen a homeless person in years.

 

[Malus 12:9]

I am unfortunatly heading that way.

 

[Tez]

When I was up town a few years ago some guy walked up to me and my friends and said give me some money (not polite at all), we said we havent got any, they he starts having ago at us calling us for everything then he walked off. A bit later someone else walked up to us and asked us for a *** (he was polite) so we gave him one. (Iv'e quit smoking now, Yay me ) Then he tells us that he saw the person that asked us for money and how he was acting and told us to just ignore people like that, and that they spoil it for the people that really need help. I dont mind helping people like that.

- Tez

 

[almifkhar]

i walk right on by. i do realize that there are people on the street that chose not to live like this, however there are things that they can do to get out of that situation. i feel that a big chuck of them chose to live on the street and that is why i walk right on by.

 

[WillieHutch]

it really depends. i live in DC and a lot of the homeless here are rude and negative. I've never given money, but have given food and clothing.

 

[tom_mich]

One good way to truely help homeless is to vote for a leader that has a plan to help them.

The richest country in the world has no excuses to have homeless people, when so many poorer countries have homelessness. Even if 1% of the trillions of dollars that is currently spent on war and weapons was spent on tackling homelessness, it would go a long way to improving the USA, and to give you a reason to feel proud of yourselves for making your country better.