My advice: Buy one issue of Street Wise (or whatever equivalent in your city) and carry it out in the open wherever you go. The others will see you and leave you alone. Works all the time.
Plus you’ll have something interesting to read with your coffee.
Jesus. This is plain evil. For God’s sake stop doing this.
–Cliffy :mad:
I guess I’m fortunate to live in D.C. – there are lots of panhandlers around on the streets but none on the subway. I usually give a quarter if I have a quarter. If not I say sorry – these people are human and they deserve that much. And in fact, I am sorry. I used to just avoid eye-contact, but there was this one guy who I walked by frequently who was very articulate and intelligent and had worked at a ballet company in Florida and it made me realize that it sure as hell could be me someday. Since then I’ve been a bit more generous.
–Cliffy
I get asked almost every day. I find I am much more comfortable looking at them, smiling, and saying “Sorry sir” than I am pretending like they don’t exist. IME, they respect the straightforward, honest, nonconfrontational communication (brief though it is) because they see so little of it.
If someone does something to entertain me, I’ll gladly give them change. Seems like a fair exchange to me. In San Francisco, I saw a guy holding a sign that said “How 'bout a buck / for a duck / Who’s down on his luck?” That made me giggle, so I gave him a buck.
Two items:
Item the First, the office in which I used to work had a disproportionate number of “artificial” deaf people selling flag pins, pens, pencils, etc. I found a quick and loud, “DUCK,” worked wonders finding out who had hearing or not.
Item the Second, Handy, are you claiming that deaf people have bad taste in clothing? Does lack of hearing inhibit color-coordinating ability? What OS are you using to come up with that judgement? Don’t your drive-by generalizations belong in GQ?
Chill stofsky- I interpreted that to mean they were making more money than the average joe, thus were better dressed. Of course it could have been a broad generalization…but he would have been insulting himself.
I always offer to take them to McDonald’s, but then again I don’t see them on a daily basis either.
We’ve been having a lot of panhandlers hanging around the grocery store where I work. Some are fine: in particular, two fellows who don’t hassle anyone and actually buy food with what they are given. The rest are just annoying, and usually hammered - on lysol or mouthwash, which they bought inside the store. Sometimes they pass out on the sidwalk in their own vomit. Nice.
If they are nice or at least SOBER, I won’t give them money but I will be nice about it. If they are wasted, I want them to get the hell away from me.
I have given money, generally to street musicians. One kid was memorable…he was dressed to the 9’s in a scottish outfit, and played the bagpipes. He was really really good! I gave him a few bucks, as did many others.
Actually I kinda liked the idea. It’s better than a goto Hell look or even worse…ignore their ass. A piece of paper with a good joke, prayer, thoughtful remark, maybe a coupon for a free meal.
At the very least, you noticed the person was alive. Perhaps even got a smile and/or they just passed it on to someone else.
Although, the “Don’t Fuck w/ Me Look” works pretty good too.
Here in the UK, I just look at the person, shake my head, and say, “Sorry.” Always works.
In Brazil, I always completely ignored them. That was the only way to get them off your back. If you gave them any money or said anything to them or acknowledged their existence in any way, you’d never hear the end of it.
I like the panhandlers around here much better. I actually used complete ignoration when I first got here, because that was the method I was used to using. But I had one guy blow up at me for ignoring him as if he wasn’t a person. After I learned that people around here accept “no” as an answer, I started answering them.
In Chicago you get the same treatment for a half-hearted response… at an intersection downtown on the 4th of July, a group of friends and I were approached by a Streetwise dealer. Most of us just ignored him, as he was pushy and rude and the last thing a bunch of poor college students need is a crappy newspaper about homeless people. However, one of my friends, being a guilt-ridden liberal, looked the guy in the eye and said, “I’m sorry man, I lost my ATM card.”
Which was true. He had no cash whatsoever on him and had been borrowing from us from the weekend. At that, however, the Streetwise dealer freaked out, screaming in his face about how he wished he had an ATM card to lose, and repeating, “I’m sorry man, I lost my ATM card” with dripping sarcasm to all passersby. He continued this for the duration of the red light we were waiting for and actually followed us all the way across the street, berating my friend all the while for his supposed stinginess, and ignoring those of us who had stuck to the ignoring him plan.
And that is why I don’t treat panhandlers like human beings. I make a practice of not acknowledging the existance of people who treat me like shit, regardless of their socioeconomic status, and the fact that panhandlers are reduced to badgering people on street corners for money to which they have no right inspires in me not sympathy but disgust.
if someone sounds sad, I give them money
if they sound like they are doing a story, or doing something they do alot… I don’t.
if some sad looking girl walks up to me and says “I REALLY need a dollar, I haven’t eatten in a week” if they say it like they really are serious… I don’t mind giveing something
the way I see it… if someone sounds really serious, either they really need help, or they are a good actor, and talented enough that a dollar is a good payment for such a good job
Been there, been that.
Life on the street is no bed of roses, folks. A couple months of little sleep, malnutrition and no safety could turn the best of you into dirty, shifty-eyed malcontents. When you’re on the bottom rung of the social ladder, nothing hurts more than than a swift kick to your ego because you pretty much already believe that you are worthless. Yeah, there are people on the streets that will take you for all you’ve got, but the same goes for the companies some of you work for. Would you treat your co-workers like dirt if they asked for help? Would you hand fake money to someone you know that needs help? Would you hand-sign something nasty to a deaf co-worker?
If I have the time I stop and talk to those less fortunate than myself. I keep track of how the current situation is food and shelter wise, because none of us have a lifetime guarantee when it comes to a good standard of living.
Funny story: We were in Brasil and for some reason one of my friends was a magnet for street people. If there was a shoe-shine boy, street pedler, prostitute, or begger around, they would find this guy and be on him like white on rice. The rest of us, they left alone. It wasn’t even like he was that nice or polite or anything. I think they just knew he was the most agrivated of the group.