Change #1: 22 Nov -- added link to bulletin concerning the power of dialing: "211" -- para.3, below
SHOULD WE GIVE MONEY TO PEOPLE
WHO BEG FOR IT ON THE STREETS?
It's way past time to work out a sensible common world-view, seasoned with a lot of compassion and empathy
1. Key Definitions:
Compassion -- sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
Empathy -- the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
2. Statement of the Problem:
2.1 Until we fix it (AND WE SHALL), we will continue to encounter the disturbing spectacle of sad people on our nation's and world's streets and alleys, begging for any meager contribution we might be willing to make -- out-of-pocket -- to help them with their most basic human needs of the most pressing kind.
2.2 Civilizations have endured this sad situation since there first began to be civilizations. But, until recently, there was no Internet. NOW, THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS TO CONTINUE TO BE THE CASE.
2.3 This is a state of human affairs that is obviously crippling human progress -- and is, therefore, utterly unacceptable and almost entirely correctable. This very generation can fix this situation. AND, BECAUSE WE CAN -- WE MUST -- for we are moral creatures by our reasoning natures. There are already so many wonderfully compassionate souls are out there, working hard on so many needful things. BUT OBVIOUSLY, THERE ARE NOT NEARLY ENOUGH OF US ON BOARD WITH THIS.
2.4 The Civic Mentor Project seeks to discover all such kindred spirits -- and create even more of them -- and help to coordinate the cooperation between us all -- until there is nothing left that needs doing on the subject.
3. Purposes of This Bulletin
This bulletin exists:
- To try to start another public conversation about short-term solutions, immediately available to ALL of us -- if we choose to see it that way.
- Along that line, please tell ANYONE in need of rescue (indigent or otherwise) to call "211." (Click here to see more)
- To aid long-term, FINAL resolution -- beginning with an orderly process for accumulating web-links and all other sources of pertinent information -- all in one convenient place -- so that this matter will rise and be kept before us -- on our very busy lives' lengthy "to do" lists -- and enable us to THOROUGHLY address it, together, with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
- To PUBLICLY DECLARE that complete elimination of this horrid spectacle is an official, fundamental, determined reason, among thousands, for the very existence of this Civic Mentor project.
4. Exploration of the Problem:
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A GENERAL SITUATION ASSESSMENT -- AS I SEE IT
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SHOULD WE GIVE MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO BEG FOR IT ON THE STREET?
Oh, you must surely mean the homeless, the down and out, the confused, the crippled --the ones with no successful role models to copy -- no escape from exposures to life's nastiness (and the corruption this would inflict on any soul, under the same TOTAL circumstances) -- no physical and mental and dental health care -- no sure next meal -- no sure, secure, comfort in the night (or day) -- exposed to the cruelties in those who haven't yet learned or matured a logical concept as to what it means to be HUMAN? They are what I mean.
Let's examine the matter:
4.1 A HIGH-PAYING "JOB?" -- After all, it's been said (by someone) that they can make huge salaries doing this -- as if this is somehow exploiting others who envy a "dream-job" they weren't "lucky" enough have. And, what a lousy "dream-job" to have to worry about being paid, each and every day -- but unable to predict, at all -- degraded by having to be so utterly dependent on the whims of others -- exposed to the indignities that are in the "job description." If this is the very best they can do -- else they would be doing something else -- then, they can do nothing more (without a lot of help) -- but, at least they're not ALL stealing it -- as far as we can fairly determine (though, desperate times call for desperate measures). I wonder -- if one has no home and thus, has no secure place to keep their paltry accumulation of stuff -- then, what are they to do with it, if they should find a job and have to be somewhere else? With no phone or permanent address -- so vital to getting and keeping most any job.
4.2 MIS-ALLOCATION OF FUNDS? Okay, but what might they do with it? Buy drugs? Wine, booze? Perhaps -- such might be the only thing that might approximate happiness in their world -- with no wholesome model to tell them that this is a false, dead-end -- and what a better life looks like -- how are they to know, if no one shows them -- against odds stacked so overwhelmingly? Not everyone can beat the odds, especially without the benefit of wholesome family and social life to teach practical success-strategies -- and to provide the all-important support structures, resources, and "breathing room." Among equally distressed friends, who end up reinforcing the negatives in the situation -- further trapping everyone who ventures too close, with no escape avenues in the wings.
4.3 WHAT DOES "BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT" REALLY MEAN? Here's a very big "maybe" to consider: Maybe that money goes directly into something of value. At least some surely have hungry partners and children, dirty, with sad eyes and empty bellies. Are we really in the business of judging another's circumstances -- without even close to sufficient information? To the point where we turn the other way, close our ears to pleas and our hearts to pity, on the slightest off-chance that we will have made a mistake with our pennies?.
4.4 THERE FOR THE TAKING? Well, why don't they "just go and get a job." Ha! They're going to need a lot more than "just going out to get a job." Such is spoken by someone without empathy, looking through binoculars from atop a very tall ivory tower. But, oh, if the shoe were on the other foot -- how the tune would surely change.
4.5 COMPASSION IS A COMFORTABLE COAT: Here's to giving people every chance we can -- giving them the benefit of the doubt -- and helping social organizations whose job it is to rescue our fellow humans and turn them into productive, self-fulfilling, happy systems -- which they surely desire -- rather than being written-off as lost souls, if they are able to think and understand the concept at all. And if their thinking machines are malfunctioning (no surprise, here), does this not make their need for succor even deeper, perhaps?
4.6 THE BALL'S IN OUR COURT: If we don't take this matter seriously, someone's gonna pay (in fact, the paying has been going on for centuries) -- and that someone is the rest of us, in a very real and true and direct and most unpleasant sense. IF WE DON'T, THEN WHO WILL? (Our children's children? What a sad legacy to pass down)
4.7. WE CALL THE SHOTS: IS THIS NOT AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE? -- Well, freedom FROM WANT (has to be part of any sensible definition of the term) and it needs to be seen as a basic human right -- or we will corrupt our higher principles -- principles which I think distinguish us among nations -- if anything does.
5. A Public Call to Private Action
5.1 So, friends, I say reach into those pockets, without reservation (TEMPORARY FIRST AID) -- share your advantages to increase theirs and raise them to a higher plane of existence. On hot days, be sure to give water and money (or anything else useful). On cold days, give heat and money (or anything else useful). On every day, give HOPE and ENCOURAGEMENT and every KINDNESS -- for they are an aspect of human existence and a test of what we think that means.
Share of yourselves to lift others up -- as if your very well-being depended on it -- for it does. Risk being taken advantage of, confident that this is not really the case at all. What you are really doing is saying something about the kind of person you are. You are helping others, materially, of course -- but you are also COMMUNICATING (to them and yourself and any witnesses) that this is one more person who cares, empathizes, and wishes ALL fellow humans well. People can go a long way on the power that GOOD ACTS inject into the sorrowful chain-reactions that shape their lives. And good examples are contagious.5.2 And, on the other side of that coin -- the longer-term solution (PERMANENT CURE) -- start (or continue) helping those organizations that are working on the problem. Many are already doing so. But, never enough, as long as the situation endures. In future bulletins, I will make these kindred spirits better known to you in such a way, that you will never accidentally overlook them again. Once you know what's being done, you can see what's left to do -- so you can help the doing.
This is a CRUCIAL CIVIC DUTY as clear as day.
6. John Bradford is credited with authoring this most profound, eye-opening statement, which brings to our doors, the meaning of "empathy & compassion," a sensible, motivating foundation for the needful work toward human well-being and betterment:
"There, but for the grace of god, go I"
MUCH, MUCH MORE TO FOLLOW....
David Nelson
All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved. BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.
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