external monologue

you might as well hand em a bottle of booze or a crack rock. but maybe I'm too jaded after watching so many people get scammed out of $5 and $10 outside greyfriars.

My Morning Jacket can atone for the sins of Lynyrd Skynyrd and every Southern Rock band before them. I saw them on Sunday night, speaking of weekend shows. If don't know what they are like, the bass drum said it all, it was the decapitated head of a roaring bear surrounded by two skeletons. After the show the bar was a mess of loose socks, socks that minutes before had been rocked off by a very unexpecting croud. It was very sophisticated, loud and southern. The band looked like the kitchen staff at Lupi's with Goodwill T-shirts and hair that, when let down, veiled their eyes for the remainder of the show. My favorite rock band from the south used to be R.E.M. Not anymore. Please everyone, buy a My Morning Jacket CD.

JOHN TOTTEN IS A BUM!

Andy...I'm sorry you ran into the 'salvation army' dude. I've had several run-in's with the man, same story every time. One time my friends and I even offered to take him to Salvation Army and pay for he's stay (since we didn't have cash)...he just flipped out on us. So, as a warning to those who see him: I believe he's pulling your leg....it's the same good lie over and over again...sorry dude.

Andy, that photograph is awesome. It reminds me of some painting I've seen, name escaping me though. And I do carry around some crack rocks in my pocket just to please the people who accost me on the L. It's an idea, I bet you'd get some good photos, right before they deck you and steal your camera. Ah, the joys of city living.

hehe ... yes, yes, well i'll see if i can't scrounge up a bottle of crack from the couch cushions at home. in the meantime, this is a real problem. what do we do about these people? even if i know i'm going to be scammed, it seems like there's a better solution than merely walking away. perhaps this all stems from my middle-class-white-boy guilt, which somehow i'm appeasing by throwing away $10 now and then? perhaps the solution is greater involvement with the actual homeless, who are probably quite easy to find, and eager to be helped.

I got stopped by the "serpentine belt" guy last night outside Buffalo Wild Wings. This is the third or fourth time he's told me that his serpentine belt on his car is broken. I offered him a dollar -- it was all the small bills I had, and I wasn't giving him a $20 when he was lying to me -- and he turned me down for being "patronizing." I think he knew I didn't believe him. What frustrated me was that it was a miserable, cold night last night, and I wouldn't have minded at all if he just said, "hey man, it's cold, and I need to some money to go get warm someplace" or even, "it's damn cold and I want a whiskey." I would have given him something either way. But he had to go and be both obsequious and insincere. Ugh, I'm getting frustrated and confused just thinking about this.

homelessness in the us of a is mucho different than in other countries (something i think everybody will agree with). why is it that most homeless people in the united states are able-bodied individuals whereas in other countries homelessness is due to actual government oppression and neglect? it seems that this land of opportunity has created a sense of "i deserve (blank)," which rears its head not only on reality tv, but even in our homeless population.

Hey Andy, I've wondered a lot about what we should do in those types of situations, too. Here are some rules of engagement for "homeless" encounters that I have started using and (I think) am pretty satisfied with.

1. If they say they're hungry, and will accept food instead of money, I will buy them food. I'd hate to turn away someone who was legitimately hungry. The hardcore alcoholics don't want food, and they usually turn down this type of offer.

2. The rest I feel like you have to take on a case-by-case basis. You know--if they're already kind of drunk, or smell strongly of alcohol, I apologize and say I can't help them--no matter how pathetic their story is. If they've been in the booze recently enough for you to tell, then their sob-story is crap. They would have taken care of their own problem with the money they spent on alcohol--if their story was true.

The people that seem really sober and honest either actually are honest, or are really good at what they do. Either way, I tend to feel safe enough with these types to try to help them. I don't think it's unreasonable to say something like this: "There's a lot of people out there trying to make an easy buck--prove your story to me and I'll help you." If they're legit, they'll be able to take you to a car that's broken down by the road, and they'll have the right keys to that car, etc. I think a person really in need of help would be more than happy to help you believe them.

Of course, there's also the safety issue. It's probably not always a good idea to follow some dude into the hood where his "car broke down" at 2 o'clock in the morning.

Well, this isn't very comprehensive, but it helps me decide sometimes. In the end, I think most of us want to help those who really need it, and I guess it's better to err on the side of compassion. If anybody wants to tweak any of these suggestions (better ideas, etc.), I'd appreciate hearing what they had to say.

Oh yes, I almost forgot--Andrew Bird rocks! I, too, have had action-adventure dreams.

I've always felt that I'm not accountable for if the person asking for help is lying to me. All I'm accountable for is showing mercy and sacrifice. If some take unethical advantage of that, they will have to give an account for their actions.

Having said that, if I'm pretty sure someone is lying (I've seen them before, heard the same story, etc.), then no, that's the end of that gravy train. I even told a guy at the Sand Bar once, "You sure have a lot of bad luck with cars, mister, because this is the third time this year you've told me it broke down on the way from Knoxville."

I wonder how people who are homeless would react to our debate, what we've said, and what we have forgotten to say in their defence.

just a few thoughts...

mental illness - a would venture to say that those who are "chronically" homeless have some sort of dual diagnosis issue, meaning that they are dealing both with mental illness (i.e. depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia) and addictions.

unemployment - has anyone ever been unemployed or without a job and "purpose" for longer than a week or two? i start to lose motivation and start questioning the purpose of my life when i have a month off for christmas break! imagine when you haven't had a job for over a year. it would be very hard to gain that motivation again, especially if at this point you have lost your home, family, and are an alcoholic and possibly have a mental illness without any support system whatsoever. in addition, we currently are living in an economy where low-skilled labor is being exported, so in order to get a job you need higher education.

an address - think of how difficult it is to do anything without already having an address, including getting a job.

those are my thoughts. there are sin issues and social/societal issues and i didn't even talk about racism, getting the $1000 you need to put a deposit, first month's rent, and hooking up your utilities to get a place to live (while homeless shelters can provide a place to stay, if you get kicked out once, you don't get to go back... an what about father's with kids? most don't cater to that population). while homelessness looks different in other countries, the same problems permeate all societies. broken families, addictions, laziness, prejudice, oppression... blah, blah, blah. i'm done. :)

thank you charity, i think that gave a little voice to those who can't jump on the internet and defend their own reasons.

ari, it sounds like you have some pretty strong opinions on this. i'd love to hear any particular suggestions from your own experiences.

charity, thanks for your thoughts too - sounds like you've worked throughthese issues a bit more than the rest of us. its good to hear some more developed ideas about it.

i'm beginning to think that there are a couple different issues here. 1) True homelessness and 2) Panhandling. i'm guessing that the two can and often do coincide, but not always, and perhaps we should think about it that way. what i mean is, caring for a homeless person is a different issue than "dealing" with a panhandler. the latter probably has more in common with "pest control" and can be handled in a similarly systematic fashion. the former takes a great deal more investigation and compassion to alleviate. my thought, which i keep coming back to, is that if you/we really want to do something for the "real" homeless that there are countless ways to get involved in a fairly organized fashion if you feel you have a heart for it.

the tricky part to me is determining which is which: who's homeless, and who's panhandling and that's where real disgression comes into play. i must say that i disagree with phil in that i don't think its enough to give when you can and just hope that you're not being lied to. this sounds a little too much like punting on fourth down: perhaps the responsible thing to do, but not very risky or hopeful about what might be accomplished given a little more effort. at the same time, i'm getting a little tired of being taken for $10 every few months. not because i need the money, but because i know i'm only perpetuating the situation. however, i refuse to merely blow them off and i still think that i (we) need to continue to show mercy (not justice, mind you) to the homeless and panhandler alike, and that i'm just going to have to get better at discerning who's lying and who's needy, and giving when and where i am able.

not to diminish the conversation or digress from the issue at hand...

i can at least say this: i see people, people who obviously haven't taken a shower in a days. or have they? are they lying to me? are they for real? they look like they haven't eaten in days. or are they so skinny because they are addicted to jes' crack rock? they're acting crazy. maybe they really are mentally ill. charity told me that the budget has been cut for mental health hospitals. this could be one of their ex-patients... how sad! wait. it's the same guy who asked me for $12 a half an hour ago! i'm mad!

i don't even know what i'm trying to think here. i mostly just see evil in the world, most explicitly in my own heart when i find myself continually wondering if somebody trying to take advantage of ME. this problem of evil rears its hideous head everywhere.

and i see myself, a coward! i am cowed almost completely by these unanswerable questions and theories concerning the true cause of homelessness, mental illness, what i can do to help those affected, whether self-inflicted or not. is my God in control?

give 'em the damn money

A few things, some relevant, some not

1. John Totten is a bum. He owes me $50. He is also the second most sexy jew next to Mesh.

2. Andy & I saw Serpentine Belt Guy (my favorite of the Homeless Persons Justice League superhero team) today by Walgreens. I wanna know why this guy doesn't buy better serpentine belts? Is there a serpentine belt defection problem in the states that I just don't know about? Should I start saving up for buying serpentine belts?

3. I think the issue is a "wisdom" issue. I can't help but feel that Serpentine Belt Guy is running a racket, and that we shouldn't fund his bum-lifestyle. I also can't help but feel there are other poor people out there who we should help if we can. I just don't think there exists a black and white method for when or when not to give money. I know "do it when the Spirit leads you" sounds fluffy, but still seems true for me.

4. You guys, if you live in Chattanooga, should consider getting involved in the new version of La Esperanza, which I think may be called "La Paz." I went to their first big meeting last week, and it's a fairly impressive group of people. They also had good tacos. Which leads me to...

5. If you want to get Josiah to help out in ministry situations, give him good tacos. Diet coke will work as a substitute, camel lights even, but you can't go wrong with tacos.

6. John Totten is a bum.

7. Paul N. I'm telling your wife you posted on a blog!

Has anyone here read Nick Hornby's "How to Be Good"? He points out - rather well - that all our feelings of guilt don't actually help those less fortunate. But more than that, most of the time our actions of charity don't either. Selling all you have and giving everything to the poor doesn't actually help the poor all that much. It isn't a matter of money nearly as much as it is a matter of income. Even if you were to give a street person $1k, their problems haven't actually gone anywhere unless they have a way of getting more.

I think we need to make a distinction between wanting to alleviate the suffering of the poor by actions of compassion, and wanting to end poverty. The first treats symptoms, the latter treats diseases. Buying a homeless man a burger on a cold night will not actually fix his problems. But it will keep him warm and fed for a few hours, which is a good thing to do for a fellow human being. Trying to actually bring someone out of poverty is a lot harder, and I'm not convinced it's actually possible most of the time.

Historically, people have talked about God's Poor and the Devil's Poor. The former are honest, hard working people who through no fault of their own have fallen on hard times. The latter are idle, lazy parasites. Frankly, I'm not convinced the distinction is helpful. Poverty is a vicious cycle. Some people have made bad choices. Others people suffer because of bad choices made for them. Still others simply have a patch of bad luck that's big and/or long enough to kick them off the prosperity train. It almost doesn't matter why you're homeless: the longer you're homeless the longer you're likely to remain homeless.

Does this mean we shouldn't care for the poor? No. But it does mean that we shouldn't necessarily focus all of our efforts on ending poverty, and while we recognize that a few bucks is only a temporary remedy, we shouldn't diminish the value of doing such things.

If I were a truly homeless person, what business would I have on broadstreet? Why would I want to be there? One guy who is pretty clearly homeless, Greyfriar's old man stinky, has never asked me for money. The only bumming I've seen him doing has been for a cigarette.
I've been to the area under the bridge before. I've seens people there who are carrying all the accoutrements of vagrant living. The one time I was down there, I spent a good while talking to one of the homeless guys. I don't remember him asking for any money, but he definately ate half of my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
My point is this, that when showing compassion to people suffering -which is all that giving on the spur of the moment is- why would we expect to experience this suffering in broad street, the center of our little micro-cosms capitalism complex?

From Blogmedic (Local EMT Blogger)

Zen and the Art of Serpentine Belt Maintenance

Andy, Mesh, we need to mobilize, find Serpetine Belt Guy, and do an article about him in the Pulse.

ok, so i sent andy an e-mail earlier and i'm not going to repeat every last thing i said in it, but the gist of it is, don't give to people who ask.

if they're together enough to ask for it and have no shame in doing so, they're on drugs. or alcohol. or if they're not, they will be, as soon as you hand them $10.

there is no-one starving to death in this country. except kids sometimes. whose parents are drug addicts.

there's no such thing as someone "legitimately" asking you for money. if they have a need, there is a social services program to fill it. if you feel bad for people who are homeless, carry the number of a drop-in shelter with you. better yet, if they have this in chattanooga, get the number to a service that will pick people up and take them to a shelter.

the question of why people are homeless in this country at all is a totally different one. there are tons of reasons, not the least being the capitalist set-up here, where in order to build a shack, you have to own the land under it. other countries have land lying around that doesn't belong to anybody, and poor people rig their houses up on it. shanty towns. here, landlords bulldoze shanty-towns.

but i worked in a homeless shelter in brooklyn for nigh on 2 years and i never saw any of my clients on the street begging for money. why? because people who ask for money are not so homeless that they need to stay in a shelter, they're obviously bright enough to go get themselves a place to stay.

ask any of these scam artists if they want to go to the shelter, or the Y, or whatever is available, see what they say. if you're truly needy, you jump at the chance to get free food and a warm place to stay. NONE of these guys need food or a place to stay, they already have it. they want money. to get high.

so. to assuage your guilt, or give yourself a useful outlet for your compassion, give to an organization that actually knows people's needs and knows how to help them. none of these programs are over-funded. if everyone kept their money in their wallet and gave it to legitimate charities, it might actually make a difference.

ps; when it gets really cold here in NYC, the police go around and pick up all the dual-diagnosis guys who are the hard-core sidewalk dwellers, the guys who are too far gone to get help but not far enough gone to be insitutionalized. they get put in jail for the night to keep them from freezing to death. who knew the cops actually had it in them to be so kind?

ciao,
jerah

Thank you, Jerah. I wanted to say what you said... but I didn't want to be heckled with "your an unfeeling right-wing bastard."

But on that note, the problem of "no shacks" you mention is not a capitalist thing. It's actually a socialist thing. Federal, State, County, and Municipal governments have annexed land unconstitutionally. This is a real problem. But government regulation of nearly every aspect of life is the heart of it. And that has nothing to do with "capitalism."

Capitalism is seriously flawed... as seriously flawed as Statism and socialism. Let's just be more accurate with our diagnosese.

But, again, your commments about the homeless money begging thing is right on otherwise.

oh shit, greg baus agreed with me. what did i do wrong?

i'm not talking about people not being allowed to live on municipal land or in central park. the landlords who bulldoze shacks, at least in my neck of the woods, are full-on industrial bosses.

however, as the employees of rock city have aptly noted on more than one occasion, the UN is the reason we're not allowed to four-wheel in national parks anymore.

of course.

-jerah

Jerah, well thanks for confirming my paranoia about people's prejudice against views no-matter-what.

But anyway, try being a property owner and allowing people to squat on your land (ignoring them, let alone trying to help them!) and see how fast Big Brother comes down on you. We cannot escape the fact: it comes down to government tyranny.

what views? what paranoia?

more importantly, what flamingoes?

Don't worry Jerah, Baus only half-agreed with you.

He once agreed with me, too, I think, about something or other, although he'd probably deny it now. Anyway I can't remember anymore. We talked at least.

typo.
Of course I meant to say "prejudice against MY views"... but never mind.

The flamingos thing is JQs way of making fun of me, I think.

And "marty" is which marty I wonder.

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