I live in Denver also, but unfortunately I am not of the same generous spirit as Carina42. I NEVER give money to panhandlers. Here’s what goes through my mind when I see one. (No, I would never, ever say this aloud to the panhandlers.)
First of all, that’s MY money and I worked hard for it. I need it, too. Secondly, why don’t you get a job instead of standing on the corner? I know that McDonald’s hiring. Or is it that you could get a job somewhere, but they will only pay you minimum wage, whereas, standing on this corner begging strangers for money pays you more than that? Third, if you’re so homeless and hungry, how come you’re so fat? Why are you wearing jewelry? A nice warm Tommy Hilfiger parka?
Unfortunately, I am very jaded on this subject. I figure that either they are standing on the corner because they make more money there than McD’s is paying (I figure they gotta make at least ten bucks an hour on the corner), or because they are lying. Either way, I’m not giving my money to them.
I used to live in Highlands Ranch, a nicer suburb of Denver, far outside the city. The panhandlers have taken to standing at the highway ramps with signs until the police chase them away. One morning on my way to work, I saw a guy at my regular exit with a sign that said something like "Have job in Boulder tomorrow a.m. Need gas to get there. Please help!" Which made me think, hm...at least he's got a job. But no, I didn't give him any money. I saw him again that same day on my way home from work. Then, the next morning, when this guy supposedly had a job in Boulder, I ran errands before work and ended up taking a different route to the highway. There he was, not in Boulder, but holding his little sign saying he needed to get there. That REALLY pissed me off. He just moved exits so new people would see him and all the people who gave him money yesterday to be in Boulder this morning wouldn’t know he had scammed them. I really wanted to go stand next to him, holding my own little sign saying “He’s lying!” with an arrow pointing at him. Jerk.
Ok, so I’m a cold, heartless wench when it comes to panhandlers. But here’s something nice that I saw that I will never forget. On a field trip in 7th grade, we were downtown and had brought brown bags for lunch and were sitting on the 16th street mall chatting and getting ready to eat. One of the boys near me was a fat kid who had been complaining for two hours about how hungry he was, when are we going to eat, I’m STARVING! etc. So, as this kid is opening his lunch bag, an older man came up to us and asked if we had any spare change or food that we could give him. We all said no, except the fat kid, who sat there looking at his lunch of two sandwiches, two bags of chips, an apple, a banana, a cupcake and two cokes, and then looking up at this painfully thin, smelly old man. Then he packed his lunch back in to the bag and said, “Here. You can have my lunch. I don’t need it anyway.” The old man opened the bag, saw how much food was in there and started crying and thanking him. The fat kid was embarassed but I thought it was the coolest, kindest thing, that a 13 year old boy would do that.
Ok…um, I think that’s pretty much all I have to say about panhandlers. 