Blogic

Giving the homeless a bad name

Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 2:49pm
Found in the meditations Annoyances  Toronto  

I’ve recently had two experiences involving seemingly destitute people that disgusted me. 

Experience #1:

I was walking back from the grocery store and there was a guy sitting on the curb holding out his hat, which is very common because that stretch of sidewalk is between the grocery store and the bank.  Anyway, this particular time, the guy with his hat out happened to be laughing.  As I got closer, I realized he was wearing headphones.  He was obviously laughing at whatever he was listening to.

I too had headphones on, which were connected to my iPod.  I often listen to podcasts like The Ricky Gervais Show and find myself laughing to myself on the subway, probably looking psychotic. So I’m thinking, why is this guy looking for handouts when he can afford an iPod?  No, I can’t be sure it was an iPod. My wife and I were out walking a few days later, and we passed a house that had an old Walkman on the curb that someone had been throwing out.  She suggested that maybe this hat guy had just grabbed something like that from somewhere and didn’t actually buy it.  But he was laughing.  Surely he was listening to a podcast of some kind??  What else could it have been?  Bill Cosby tapes??  Any theories as to what was going on?  Contribute!

Experience #2:

I was at Subway (the sandwich shop, not the transit system) having lunch by myself.  This woman walked in, came up to me and said “Do you have a dollar thirty?”  I said “No, sorry.”  She turned around and walked back out, at which point I noticed that she had a purse hanging off her shoulder.  She also didn’t look particularly downtrodden.

So she had enough money to need a purse, but she wanted another buck thirty?  Even if that is the case - like maybe she juuuust about had enough for Cold Cut Combo but needed that little bit more - since when is it appropriate behaviour to interrupt a total stranger in the middle of a meal and ask for change?  At least if she had opened with “Excuse me?  This is really embarrassing, but…”  Hell in that case, I probably would have hunted in my pockets for something!

Anyway, I’m convinced that there are people in this city who take advantage of the generosity of others, causing people like me to be reluctant to offer it.  What do you think?

Here’s an interesting related survey.