My nose meets other people's business
Apr. 23rd, 2007 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zeppomarksThe freeway exit that leads to our neighborhood has seen increasing homeless traffic. One corner in particular now has people who work in shifts holding up the same sign. I thought it was merely my cynicism kicking in when I thought it was the same sign but different people holding it and then about ten days ago I actually watched the exchange take place. A man handed a woman over the piece of cardboard, he showed her his take, she shoved her newish looking duffle bag into the weeds so it was out of sight and turned around with her "Homeless - please help" sign as if none of us were there at the stop light watching the whole transaction.
I have always considered myself to be a fairly moral person which is admittedly tricky business when you are raised as atheist. Not to say that atheists aren't moral people, but our standards vary since there is no "book" to refer to with clearly defined rules.
I believe strongly that when people need help, you help them within your ability - no questions asked, no expectations for reciprocation, no fanfare required.
Obviously I can't help everybody as much as I would like too, time and finances limit me and there are a few too billion more than I can reasonably handle even if my time and finances permitted. Also atheists don’t have nunneries, which is too bad since I bet the outfits would be downright stylish.
A long time ago when I was in highschool there was a girl named Kathy. She was a grade a below me, although she was older than I was because she was suffering from mild mental retardation. We weren't friends although we definitely weren't enemies. One time I turned the corner into the math hall and saw a trio of thick necked idiots making fun of her. This was the same lot who had made fun of me many many times before and so when I stopped a short distance from them with my uber bitch glare they made some editorial comments and moved off like the hyenas they were. Kathy and I looked at each other but did not speak. I kept walking.
Fast forward to now Kathy lives in the neighborhood. I see her walking here and there frequently, waiting for the bus, in the grocery store reading "Soap Digest" and in the drug store. I was waiting to have a prescription filled once and we talked for about 15 minutes about her favorite TV shows, she likes American Idol, but doesn't remember me from highschool. I was grateful for her amnesia as I was a complete fool back then.
This morning I got a call from Paul that Kathy was on the corner holding a cardboard sign saying that she needed "money for medicine."
He gave her twenty dollars but he didn't feel like that was enough. I felt also that we should do something, but I don't know what exactly. This isn't a hypothetical or some kind of ethics proposal, this is a whole human being who saw other people making money and concluded that she could do the same thing not knowing that she could also be arrested for it. The other hideous option is that some unsavory person has talked her into doing this.
She is an adult human and capable of making choices except, she isn't quite all there. So does the fact that her choices are made under the shadow of her disability make them less appropriate then the decisions I make? I know at least a dozen people who will testify that I definitely have a disability.
This is damn tough one, I feel like she needs assistance and if is standing on a corner with a cardboard sign she appears to be asking for some.
I am just not sure how to proceed; I know my mother would probably tell me this is none of my business.
I have always considered myself to be a fairly moral person which is admittedly tricky business when you are raised as atheist. Not to say that atheists aren't moral people, but our standards vary since there is no "book" to refer to with clearly defined rules.
I believe strongly that when people need help, you help them within your ability - no questions asked, no expectations for reciprocation, no fanfare required.
Obviously I can't help everybody as much as I would like too, time and finances limit me and there are a few too billion more than I can reasonably handle even if my time and finances permitted. Also atheists don’t have nunneries, which is too bad since I bet the outfits would be downright stylish.
A long time ago when I was in highschool there was a girl named Kathy. She was a grade a below me, although she was older than I was because she was suffering from mild mental retardation. We weren't friends although we definitely weren't enemies. One time I turned the corner into the math hall and saw a trio of thick necked idiots making fun of her. This was the same lot who had made fun of me many many times before and so when I stopped a short distance from them with my uber bitch glare they made some editorial comments and moved off like the hyenas they were. Kathy and I looked at each other but did not speak. I kept walking.
Fast forward to now Kathy lives in the neighborhood. I see her walking here and there frequently, waiting for the bus, in the grocery store reading "Soap Digest" and in the drug store. I was waiting to have a prescription filled once and we talked for about 15 minutes about her favorite TV shows, she likes American Idol, but doesn't remember me from highschool. I was grateful for her amnesia as I was a complete fool back then.
This morning I got a call from Paul that Kathy was on the corner holding a cardboard sign saying that she needed "money for medicine."
He gave her twenty dollars but he didn't feel like that was enough. I felt also that we should do something, but I don't know what exactly. This isn't a hypothetical or some kind of ethics proposal, this is a whole human being who saw other people making money and concluded that she could do the same thing not knowing that she could also be arrested for it. The other hideous option is that some unsavory person has talked her into doing this.
She is an adult human and capable of making choices except, she isn't quite all there. So does the fact that her choices are made under the shadow of her disability make them less appropriate then the decisions I make? I know at least a dozen people who will testify that I definitely have a disability.
This is damn tough one, I feel like she needs assistance and if is standing on a corner with a cardboard sign she appears to be asking for some.
I am just not sure how to proceed; I know my mother would probably tell me this is none of my business.
