Arkansas Blog

Yep, better fasten those collection boxes pretty tight to something big and heavy. I'm reminded of those permanently borrowed bicycles.

I know some people are squeamish about giving money to panhandlers because they don't want the money to be spent on vices. Don't some cities have programs where productive citizens can buy tokens (or chits or something like that) which are passed out to panhandlers instead of cash? Something that local food retailers will accept for food only? That might only be plausible in a bigger city.

Too bad Little Rock (every city, really) can't afford facilities where homeless people can clean up and go to the toilet. San Francisco has some, but they're pricey. See link.

We can give $50 Million to a third rate computer company but we can't provide a latrine for our homeless folks. Will the real panhandler please stand up?

Call me cruel, crass, or cold, but I'm not going to open up my wallet when some dude hits me up on the sidewalk. I'm usually by myself, so it sho ain't gonna happen. Last time I got panhandled was near the Statehouse Center and the guy said he needed money to get to North Little Rock. I told him that the Main Street Bridge was right there.

Call me stupid, but I've been known to empty my wallet and give it all to someone. I figure it's better to give than to receive, and I'd rather be ripped off than to deny someone in need. It's only money.

I suppose at times like these your humanity comes out. Also at times like these the Christians discover how much they are willing to embrace the principles of their faith. What they discover is their principles are only for Sundays when they're around peers.

Ark religions should be, as Rod mentioned, Corporations-R-Us.

How much will be spent on the boxes? How much will be spent maintaining them? How much will be siphoned off in order to justify this?

Wouldn't it be better to actually help someone?

I'll be handing my money directly to a human being in need.

Two days in a row LR works directly to NOT help people... criminalize the poor from even having a temporary home or prepared food... and "handle'" what little money might be involved, you know, to keep you safe.

The meanness and arrogance in LR is astounding. Some folks need to get a grip on reality... most people are 1 to 6 paychecks from homelessness. Poor people need help, but they are not criminally evil or all carrying the plague... The honor and privilege should be helping people not clutching pearls while trying to shoe them off like flies.

I've met some smelly awful homeless folks in my day. Helped many, been taken advantage of a few times too. Oh well.. but nothing disgusts me as much as the way LRockers handle or don't handle this situation.

"Call me cruel, crass, or cold, ...."

Pollen, I promise not to call you anything, if you promise not to call yourself a Christian.

Deal?

I try to carry at least $20 with me at all times in case anyone asks me for help. I don't ask them what they are going to do with the money but I tell them the following:

"I don't know what you are actually going to do with this money. I hope you use it for good, but only because I care. God bless you."

I've seen many tear up and it makes me both sad and happy at the same time. As a Christian, I can't imagine judging someone asking for help, and rationalizing not helping.

reallawyer, I'm not a Christian. I do help people out. I just don't get my wallet out when someone asks for money for another hit/bottle/whatever.

You don't know what they are using the money for. Sure some homeless people have drinking problems, but many are mentally ill and just want to eat. I'd much rather give my money to someone that doesn't need it than to take a chance of not giving to someone that does need it.

Sure some of the people I give money to may buy liquor, but some of the people you don't give money to will go to bed hungry. I'm not going to punish people truly in need just to make sure somebody undeserving doesn't get something.

Check out this website - www.SameKindOfDifferentAsMe.com - and read the book. You'll never look at homelessness the same way again.

Reallawyer, you're obviously a better person than I. So, do you roll your window down at the intersection and fork over some bills everytime you see the same person standing on the corner with that well-worn sign?

So, should I have several $5's every time I walk downtown? Should I give them my driver's license and credit cards? Hell, I've got an extra room, should I just let them move in?

I've bought lunch for homeless folks before. It pissed them off. Now, are they all this way? Of course not. Like I said at first, I'm not going to reach into my pocket and open up my wallet whenever someone asks me for money. I know that the majority of the panhandlers are harmless, but if even 5% are not, then I'd have been mugged a few times by now.

A while back a woman knocked on my door asking for money, laundry detergent, soap, and feminine hygene products. I gave her the detergent and soap. Guess what? She came back several times after that. One time she "noticed" I had a bike in my garage and asked if I needed another one conviently in the back of her truck. One time she wanted to mow down my gardens because she thought they were weeds. At this point I politely told her to never come back or I'll call the cops. Now, I guess I should've given her $20 every time she showed up at my doorstep. How long would that last?

>>>>>>>>>>Two days in a row LR works directly to NOT help people... criminalize the poor from even having a temporary home or prepared food.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Kinda OT, but not really.
Did the Mayor have any suggestions where the folks who live in those motels should go live once their 30 days are up?

Pollen you can always rationalize things, and obviously you have become very good at it.
Let's just hope you and I never end up like them because it can happen to anyone.

Thanks for the tip about the book. Click on my name to see the video about the book. I like what the guy says at the very end.

You could stuff those boxes and shelters full of dough but as long as people are giving away free money well then there will be folks begging for it. You got to compassion for the mentally ill whose families have turned their backs on them, but I don't have much pity for the others. There are jobs out there, not great jobs, but opportunities to earn a decent living and at least get an apartment.

Pollen I will have to agree with you on this one. I have offered to buy food for homeless folks, drive homeless folks to shelters, even offered to pay for nights stays in motels for them, even offered to help them find temp employment, and most often they don't want that stuff. They want cold hard cash. I had a guy at an intersection two years ago in LR ask for money to get to Jackson, TN. He said his water pump was out and he needed money to get it fixed. He had two little children ages probably 4-5 standing there with him on the edge of the street. I offered to use my AAA to have his car towed to a station and then offered to pay to have his water pump fixed. He didn't want that. He wanted the cash. He was standing outside of my employers office on the highway. The police showed up. Turns out he lived in NLR and had a car that ran fine. The kids were his nephews.
There are places and people all over town that will help these people. Most of the ones you see, don't really want help, they want cash.

It might not be a homeless person, it might be an angel testing your compassion. (I can't help thinking this way-- I was raised Catholic.)

Boy howdy! Those angels are getting pretty crafty, trying to sell stolen bicycles and all.

damn, do you folks take on panhandlers as personal projects? what's the point except to prove to your smug self that you were right all along: these people are all just lazy liars. and bad liars at that! i mean, a good liar could make better money, amirite?! give a man a quarter or say no and move on.

that bike must've been stolen, eh pollen? it was in the back of a truck FFS! only recently stolen things are in trucks.

selling stuff to each other, neighbors, etc is part of the economy, especially among the poorer among us. get over yourself.

Give a man a fish, he has food for a day, Teach a man to fish, he has food for life!

who in the world do you think you are teaching to fish, billary?

build a man a fire and he stays warm for one night. set a man on fire and he stays warm for life!

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I'm sure Jesus is as ashamed of some of you as I am.

Keep rationalizing your selfishness.

He knows the truth even if you don't.

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The compassion of some of us is admirable and amazing. Are we as compassionate when panhandlers knock on our doors asking for money? Are we as compassionate when panhandlers stand outside of our businesses and ask people who are trying to enter them for money?

Call it rationalization, but I tried to help the lady out who came to my door asking for money. She came back several times after that. I guess I'm selfish when I don't want people coming to my door asking for money.

With all the mexs in here working you'd think there are jobs the homeless could do.
But, Pollen you said you weren't a christian. You must be born again. Today is the day of salvation for you!
There are words that teach us what is expected of us,, Don't cast your pearls before swine.
Jesus said the poor you have with you always but the Son of man you will not have always.
It is always better to give than to receive... you can not out give GOD!
Give and it shall be given back to you pressed down running over.
We are to take care of the poor.

Reallawyer, if your beneficence makes you feel good -- Christian -- by all means continue as long as you can afford it. Me? I'd prefer to support something like Neighbor to Neighbor, a local program which provides a free noon meal to those who need it. There are also other ways I will help needy folks on occasion. But I want to be sure my help is directed in a way that I willingly support.
In any case, I take issue with the idea that being a "Christian" requires that we give freely to all comers. Sadly, I have someone in my family, a widow of a few years standing, who has been drained, not only of savings, but also the proceeds of the sale of her home and surrounding properties. If someone has a hard luck story, be it child, grandchild, cousin, neighbor, casual acquaintance -- the list goes on and on, she feels it's her "Christian duty" to help. Not once, but five times she has given, GIVEN, mind you, a fairly new car to a family member because their vehicle had so many miles on it, needed work, etc., etc. When we try to tell her that she can't keep doing this, she tells us "The Lord will take care of me."
When she asked my husband to be her executor, I convinced him to beg off. When her heirs, the ones who haven't benefited from her philanthropy, find out there is nothing left of what was a sizable estate, I don't want to be anywhere near the center of the firestorm.
Don't talk to me about "Christian duty."

doigotta gave at the office. "christian duty' fulfilled! actually, don't talk to me about christian duty either. and nice to see chasv join in with words of wisdom.

At the office or the check's in the mail -- doesn't matter. No matter how (or if) I make a donation to a cause, it's not because it's my Christian duty. Maybe I got my arm twisted by a volunteer. Maybe I got shamed when a neighbor asked if he could pick greens when I decided I'd planted too many and quit picking them. Heck, maybe it's just a cause I support.
Point is, it's my choice to do as I see fit.
If I'm headed to hell because I quickly walk past the guy who asks me for a buck while sitting on the ground with his back against a McDonald's wall, so be it. Did I figure he might take it to a nearby liquor store? Yeah, but that wasn't why I kept walking. Did I want to stop and rummage around in my purse on that parking lot? Not on your life.
If the Downtown Little Rock Partnership scheme works, great. If it manages to feed just a few hungry people, wonderful. But as always, I'm just a wee bit cynical. Like Max said, let's hope those boxes are sturdy. And that bank VPs don't come across them.

If the choice is McDonald's or Evan Williams. I'll take Evan Williams.