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[COSteve]

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[piller]

It makes sense to me.

[gamekeeper]

I have seen what the Welfare state has done for my country, those that really need it have trouble getting it, those that don't deserve it have flatsceen TVs and foreign holidays..

[Booger Bill]

Lately I have been mentally fighting myself with the question of giving money to panhandlers. Through the years I have (and still do) ignore them. I have helped out just a very few through many years. This morning I noticed one regular that I have seen numerous times around town holding a sign "I need a act of kindness" in front of a truck stop. Yesterday he was in front of walmart with it. I was tempted to pull over and ask him "How are they biting today?" They remind me of guys sitting on a riverbank fishing. Trouble is we all have read accounts of how many bums actually dont need to panhandle and have better cars hidden and house`s than we do etc.
Most of us will pull over and help someone we believe is in immediate need, like say you see someone in a accident on a untraveled road or whatever. When is the last time you had a bum knock on your door and offer to mow your lawn for something to eat like we hear they did during the depression? I never seen a panhandler where I grew up in central wisconsin in the 1940`s/1950`s. I asked my dad about it and he said if the cops seen one they would pick them up and drive them to the county line, radio a deputy in that county to meet them and he would do the same. A few days ago we had a early cold spell and I seen a bum with a sign that said, "It`s too cold to sleep outside". When I was a kid our family was vacationing in Canada. A bum asked my dad for money as we were walking down a busy street. You could see he was needing a drink. Dad just laughed and said "I am looking for the same thing myself! The bum let us get a safe distance off and hollered, I hope ya find it. Ya both are fat enough now! Dad just laughed and walked on. By chance we later bumped into him on another street. He walked past us and yelled "I aint talking to you anymore!"

[GunnyMack]

since when are corvettes made of copper ?

An accident, sure ill stop. Flat tire? Nope not unless its an elderly person- i see young drivers with a flat tire that stand there staring at it like its going to inflate by itself. Well if they never learned how to change a tire its not my fault.

[barbarossa]

I find today a lot of our youth like the panhandlers expect a free ride.The scope of their entitlement is mind boggling with some parents foolishly throwing away their retirement savings to allow their kids to lay about and do nothing but cry for more and more.This is the generation that is ripe for socialism eager to be looked after by the government instead of fending for themselves.And the socialists will give it to them at the low cost of their rights and freedom.The BLM movement is nothing but a socialist scam as there are plenty of black doctors,lawyers,movie stars etc the difference from these people and the ones crying is that these people wanted it bad enough to work for to get it not stand around more worried about being cool and looking cool.

[Booger Bill]

I was in a store and a kid of about 13 asked me for some change to buy something as casually as if I was his daddy or some guy would ask for a match or to borrow a pencil to write something. He didn't look poor and was with a group of other kids, all looked average. I cut him off and a older man over heard me and tried to shame me for not giving the kid money. That irked me and I berated him back. No wonder these kids have no shame in bumming. To have a grown man defend their panhandling! No, I dont think he knew them or was with them.
I have taken a down and out bums into a restaurant, and once took another to a cheap motel and paid for his room but in both cases they were wearing rags and one looked like he was starving and had his pant legs rolled up with sore running wounds etc.
In 1964 I was driving through Calexico and decided to park my truck & travel trailer and walk into Mexicali. Another american that looked more like William Holden than William Holden stopped me for help. He had his head wrapped up in a bloody bandage, was barefoot, wearing a pair of dirty black & white checkered cook pants that were far too large. He had been rolled and woke up in jail.
His boots were either stolen by the mexican police or whoever rolled him. He said I know the procedures here, I once was married to a mexican. I had a roll of cash pinned in my shorts and the cops found it, fined him that amount and gave him some old cloths and kicked him loose.
I took him with me, outfitted him with a pair of boots etc. We hit El Passo on New Years Eve and spent that evening in a mexican bar. Then he put some shady idea`s of getting money to me so I left him in El Paso. Wonder what happened to him?
Another time I was driving from Wisconsin to California. I passed up a hitchhiker. The next town I stopped to a cafe. I came out and the hitchhiker was leaning on my truck waiting for me. "Ya passed me up back thar". Yeah, so? That softened him and he said, "Wall, I jist need a ride 60 miles up the road ta my sisters place". Okay, climb in. The guy was dressed in deniums. When we weren`t talking he would look straight ahead with his mouth hanging open like in deep troubled thought.
I would say something and he would snap out of it. Finally he said he just escaped jail! In those days I was young, tough, dumb and nave. I probably thought he may be BS`ing and didn't care and felt I could handle him if he tried something. By this time I had already made the mistake of telling him I was headed for California to do a job. (I was a contractor for a outfit that worked treating power poles for groundline decay). He asked to go with me and give him a job. I explained I had a crew waiting on me but if one didn't show to give me his sisters phone # and I would call him.
I honestly can't remember if I dropped a dime on him or not, but I dont think I did. I figured he was just some nut that probably walked off a prison farm or nut house farm. But maybe not.
I have a time or two bought a extra burger at a drive through and gave the burger to a panhandler near the entrance.

[AJMD429]

I have a time or two bought a extra burger at a drive through and gave the burger to a panhandler near the entrance.

....then your name should be BURGER Bill....

[COSteve]

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[COSteve]

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[mickbr]

I could stomach welfare recipients a lot better before drugs took hold of society. In the old days there was a chance someone down on their luck could be brought up again with a little kindness. give someone a dollar or a job opportunity or a ride, you never knew, you might be saving a life. Substance abuse changed that too much.There is no hope for them that I can give, handing them a dollar just lines the pocket of the guy with the meth lab or cocaine plantation.

[COSteve]

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