Quote:
Originally Posted by sammyg2
Warning, serious kumbaya buzz-kill ahead. If you would prefer only feel-good stuff, don't read:
Over the years I've done lots and lots of charity work with people who were temporarily down on their luck, and also with people who basically made a career out of it for one reason or another.
There's no doubt those experiences have made me more than a little cynical but when I first saw this story on the news the first thing that came to mind was this:
I bet within the hour he trades those new shoes for $10 worth of booze or drugs".
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Could be, but that guy doesn't look like a hustler to me. More like someone mentally ill, like a high percentage of the homeless. I work with them a lot myself.
Not to PARF this, but I think that your philosophy about helping people is fundamentally different than mine. I know as a pragmatic person that if you help any group of people, (or even one at a time), some are going to be undeserving. This does not bother me as much. It's a numbers game, if you want to hit the truly needy, your going to have a certain percentage of waste into the hands of scumbags and hustlers. It's unavoidable. The alternative is to say, "screw them all", and help no one.
You may be surprised if you ever saw me telling young beggars to go fk themselves outside the 7-11, particularly if they are aggressive or obvious drug addict criminal types. I'm a hard ass when I can identify them. But I'll still accept waste in my charity because I know there is no choice. My brother spends about $20+ million a year of other people's charity donations on some of the most deserving people in the world, (and with possibly the best ratio of actual dollars reaching final recipients in the business), and he has to accept a certain amount of waste and theft, etc. in every program they run. It's part of the game.
Actions define people, not words. That cop gets the rewards of living life as a good man, regardless of what the other guy does with the boots. I'd like to be non-cynical and believe that he expected no recognition whatsoever and the story of the tourist snapping the pic is legit.
