{"id":2762,"date":"2011-11-30T02:13:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T07:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2011-11-30T02:13:07","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T07:13:07","slug":"the-poor-you-have-always-in-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=2762","title":{"rendered":"The Poor You Have Always In Your Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Religious Writings Page<\/a> | Previous Religious Writing<\/a> | Next Religious Writing<\/p>\n

The Poor You Have Always In Your Face<\/h2>\n

For many a year, I\u2019ve walked past or, when behind the wheel, rolled by.<\/p>\n

As we know from Matthew 26:11 and John 12:8, the poor we have always with us.\u00a0 And I do mean always. Living and working downtown in the city, it\u2019s inevitable that several times a day I\u2019ll encounter people asking for a handout.\u00a0 There will be hand-lettered corrugated cardboard signs, and people telling me they just need a few bucks to get home, and mothers asking for help feeding their kids, and folks trying to talk with accents and vocabularies that make them sound like solid citizens who\u2019ve just been robbed or lost their purse but will promptly repay any funds advanced.<\/p>\n

Never An Easy Mark<\/h3>\n

Even before I stopped giving entirely, I was never an easy mark.\u00a0 I hate being lied to, I hate people impinging on my space, I don\u2019t like being distracted as I drive.\u00a0 I want to be left alone.\u00a0 So there was almost no way to ask me for a handout that did not push my preexisting buttons.\u00a0 But I finally found it too exhausting dealing with even the few who picked their way through the minefield of my peeves.<\/p>\n

I only wanted to help out those who really needed help, and I didn\u2019t want to marginalize them further by increasing their habits of dependency.\u00a0 In the modern phrase, I wanted to steer clear of a moral hazard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No Disclaimers<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t buy the narrative about poverty that it\u2019s the exclusive result of bad and pernicious life choices (drugs or single-parenthood) about which the rest of us need feel no concern or responsibility.<\/p>\n

Surely the Number One cause of destitution is lack of jobs.\u00a0 And our economy has diverted so much money to the wealthiest that it significantly diminishes what is available to pay those who seek work, and hence decreases jobs.[1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Even if we are not part of the gilded 1%, we benefit from the entire economic setup.<\/p>\n

And there are others who cannot work because of things done to them in our name. In pursuit of national security, from which we all benefit, we often injure our soldiers and sailors so badly in body and mind they may never be reliable functionaries in the world of work.[2]<\/p>\n

My own success, in other words, may be predicated upon things that also contribute to the failure of others.\u00a0 Can I disclaim all responsibility for these things?\u00a0 I think not.<\/p>\n

Many of the people who ask are apparently unemployable, afflicted with obvious schizophrenia or amputations that would make many kinds of work impossible.\u00a0 And there again, I am my brother\u2019s keeper.<\/p>\n

But That Said …<\/h3>\n

Yes, it\u2019s never simple.\u00a0 Some of the people whose same wheelchairs roll up to my car every morning seem to have a great work ethic; it just seems like the wrong kind of work.\u00a0 Could the schizophrenic medicate down to a state that would allow her to hold down an office job?\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n

Nor can I ignore that continuing unwise choices are generally at least a part of the history of the people who accost me for money as I walk down the street.\u00a0 If I knew that my contributions would only finance food, clothing, shelter, health care and child care and not drugs, I\u2019d be much more inclined to be generous.\u00a0 But how can I know?\u00a0 When the panhandler approaches, there\u2019s no grant application and no time for due diligence.<\/p>\n

Unconsciously, then, I\u2019ve been trying to figure out a way to help only the truly helpless, and I can\u2019t know who they are.<\/p>\n

Due Diligence By Proxy?<\/h3>\n

One way to ameliorate the problem is to rely on gatekeepers, welfare administrators who do some of the due diligence I cannot, by testing the means of the allegedly needy, and certifying them as such, and upon charitable organizations which help the poor (often limited to the poor thus certified) in my name.\u00a0 And in fact that is the way I personally have chosen to discharge my responsibility to the homeless and hungry.\u00a0 Well, that and a little bit of charity work and some pro bono.<\/p>\n

But it is not a comfortable or a satisfying choice. I know enough about gatekeepers and the interactions of the poor with them to know how humiliating the process often becomes.\u00a0 If you want a rent subsidy, for instance, you may find yourself asked not only to reveal all aspects of your personal finances, but also to apply for child support even if you don\u2019t want to ask the father for it, attend work training for which you may not be fitted, and cast out from home and hearth any children of yours who may be involved in drug crime.\u00a0 If you want help with your mental illness you may be medicated down to a state in which terrible secondary symptoms like tardive dyskinesia afflict you, and life loses all savor.\u00a0 If you want a bed for a night, you may be forced to participate in prayers you do not believe in.<\/p>\n

Naturally, all of the demands made by gatekeeper types are colorably for the poor person\u2019s good; they are designed to see that the pauper becomes more compliant with social norms (which generally works out well for the poor person), and for assuring that the donor or the state\u2019s money is not wasted.\u00a0 Worthy goals all.<\/p>\n

Yet if you are poor and you go to gatekeepers, you lose control and you lose dignity.\u00a0 It is small wonder to me that so many of our disadvantaged choose the risks and rigors of the street rather than stoop to being regulated this way.\u00a0 How badly do I want to help force a pauper into the gatekeepers\u2019 regimen?<\/p>\n

Something Personal<\/h3>\n

Anyway, something more personal seems demanded.\u00a0 Whether the demand comes from simple humanity, the Christian God[3] or Allah,[4] I know there is something good about the personal encounters I have been shunning.\u00a0 A son of mine, who spent two years feeding the poor on Friday nights, could tell me personal details about every panhandler in the neighborhood.\u00a0 He knew them, their names, their histories, their personalities.\u00a0 He said it was quite enriching for him, and I have no doubt it was for them too.\u00a0 I\u2019d hate to spend my whole life being shunned by people like me.\u00a0 And I hate being the one to shun.<\/p>\n

Before I toughened up about handouts, there was a guy who\u2019d approach me from time to time.\u00a0 I knew his<\/em> name.\u00a0 He\u2019d joke with me as he lightened my purse.\u00a0 Then something happened to him.\u00a0 Something went out in his eyes; he no longer recognizes me, or asks for a handout when we pass on the street.\u00a0 I miss him.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve missed the me who gave him money.<\/p>\n

After a Thanksgiving which made me particularly conscious of my blessings, I therefore decided to make a change.\u00a0 The day after, I happened on man sitting on a low wall.\u00a0 He was so strung out, he could barely croak a request.\u00a0 I reached into a pocket for some change, and in so doing, accidentally dropped something, which he retrieved.\u00a0 The next moment each was handing something to the other and saying thank you at the same time.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t dramatic, but I felt a point being made.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t begun to solve all the dilemmas, but I can\u2019t go on with the never giving thing.\u00a0 \u2018Tis the giving season.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]. To choose but one example<\/a>, McDonald\u2019s could have hired 933 cashiers for what it paid its CEO in 2010 \u2013 a number that speaks equally ill of what the CEO got, $17.6 million, and what the starting cashiers received: tipless minimum wage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2].\u00a0 850,000 veterans<\/a> cannot find a job; in 2008 181,000 were collecting disability benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3].\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 41 \u201cThen he will say to those on his left, \u2018Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.\u2019<\/p>\n

44 \u201cThey also will answer, \u2018Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?\u2019<\/p>\n

45 \u201cHe will reply, \u2018Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.\u2019<\/p>\n

46 \u201cThen they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew, Chapter 25.\u00a0 Kind of sounds like a demand for personal interaction and personal charity, does it not?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4].\u00a0 \u201cDo not worship except Allah ; and to parents do good and to relatives, orphans, and the needy. And speak to people good [words] and establish prayer and give zakah.\u201d Then you turned away, except a few of you, and you were refusing.\u00a0 Surah al Bakarah 2:83.\u00a0 If the speaking to people of good words is of a piece with the giving to the needy, then personal contact would seem enjoined upon the Muslim believer too.<\/p>\n

Copyright (c) Jack L. B. Gohn<\/p>\n

Religious Writings Page<\/a> | Previous Religious Writing<\/a> | Next Religious Writing<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I knew that my contributions would only finance food, clothing, shelter, health care and child care and not drugs, I\u2019d be much more inclined to be generous. But how can I know? When the panhandler approaches, there\u2019s no grant application and no time for due diligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3099,4],"tags":[3102,3110,3105,3111,3109,3104,2580,3101,3112,3103,3100,3106,3114,266,3113,3108,3107],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-writings","category-closeup","tag-begging","tag-charity","tag-destitution","tag-disability-benefits","tag-gatekeepers","tag-gospel-of-luke","tag-gospel-of-matthew","tag-homelessness","tag-mcdonalds","tag-panhandling","tag-poverty","tag-schizophrenics","tag-surah-al-bakarah","tag-thanksgiving","tag-wealth-disparities","tag-welfare-administrators","tag-work-ethic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2762"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2775,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions\/2775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}