Rearview Mirror

If you look closely, you will see a cardboard sign in the hands of the fellow with the white t-shirt. It was written in marker and said something along the lines of “homeless”, ” will work for food”, ” can you help me” or something similar to ask for money from strangers.

What is this phenomena? A new profession? A different kind of street profiteering?

I started seeing it in big cities on busy street corners. I continue to see this in Baltimore, Maryland right outside the Orioles stadium, as well as in front of major banks and businesses.  I have noticed there is a rotation of sign holders. They change shifts and locations. There is a street hierarchy, but no one is exempt from standing in the cold and rain. I have seen women with dyed blonde hair and nail jobs, men who could clean up very well and the bedraggled mixed in between. Some may have mental illness; however, I suspect that many of them probably have substance abuse problems.

This scene was captured today in a small college town in the south, with two major thoroughfares. Folks have taken up street residence on the “other side” of town, where the mall, shops and movie theater are located. He looked like your average 25-40 yr old. I have kids his age. I was seized with a strong desire to yank him off the street and ask him what he was doing there. What do you need? Help finding a job? Well, I have learned my lesson on that. If anyone wants a job- they have to want it first for themselves. As Dave says, “Those convinced against their will, are of the same opinion still”. So, scratch that idea. I can’t take anyone to my home. I have heard too many stories of normal looking folks addicted to opioids lately. I can’t afford to be cleaned out for someone’s habit while I am at work. What could I do for this fellow? Well, I can’t give him tea. I tried that once. I saw a white haired gentleman in the intersection on a hot summer day with a sign asking for help. I rolled my window down and told him, “I don’t have any cash, but this tea is fresh from across the McDonald’s directly across the street” and passed it to him through my window. He held his hands up in a “back off” lady and said very politely, “Honey, I can’t drink that. I only drink alcohol”. Ever since that experience, I wonder if all the handouts go to support drugs and alcohol.

I suppose I could provide support to a local homeless shelter or half way house for recovering addicts and alcoholics.

I suppose I could look the other way and wish I didn’t see this or puzzle on what little children are thinking about seeing grown people on the streets begging for help and grown people ignoring them as they catch a red light.

I suppose I could ask them. I could attempt to stop my car  and go over with a pen and paper to see what their answers are. The only person who knows why they are there is them.

I suspect it is a well-greased “community” of homeless people at the local shelters who are sent out in the day to “look for a job”. They have been reinforced that it is quicker and easier to pick up some cash from empathetic and sensitive souls touched by their need, than put the work in to get a job and return to the mainstream adult work world. On the other hand, it could be a criminal element at work, using the helpless and mentally ill to collect from the public to pay their “keep”.

I gave a young fellow a $20 bill one day. He carried himself like he had been in the military- walking slowly down a dangerous city street. His sign said he was a Vet who needed help. I was stopped at a stoplight and as he walked by my car, I felt so distressed that I rolled my window down. When I gave him the cash, I told him to buy a bus ticket and go home to his family or somewhere but to get out of here. He looked me right in the eye and said, “I will”. A few months later, I saw the same guy, with poorer posture and more bedraggled. I don’t know if he ever served the country or if he is one of the walking wounded. This could be a full time job- to cruise the streets and connect individuals with resources. That’s what I thought Social Services did. The question is: Do they want anything different? What would happen if we picked them up and took them in to a warm home with hot meals- and a clear expectation that they become self supporting within 6 months?

I am still perplexed. My whole childhood, I never saw anything like this. I later heard as an adult that we had uncles who were alcoholics and “lived under the bridge”, but children were protected from the visual.  As an Adult, I need to be protected from this sight. It makes my skin crawl like fingernails on a chalk board.

We have emptied the mental hospitals over the last 25 years purposefully to satisfy the rights of the mentally ill to be in the community. Some people can’t function and are living like animals because they have rights? To see a human being standing in the snow when it is 30 degree outside with frost on their face holding a sign begging is heartbreaking. That’s not exactly what everyone was promised and surely not what we think is “their right”.

Modern day beggars? There are churches, food pantries, goodwill industries, homeless centers, substance abuse treatment centers and social services. Where do these folks end up? Jail. Most of the mentally ill left on the street unsupervised and without treatment end up incarcerated and a larger debt to society.
One day, we will look back in our “society’s rear view mirror” and see this for what it is.

Whatever that is?