Will Work For Food and Worse

Saturday morning I was in town and having some waiting time on my hands headed to the bookstore. I got off the interstate and at the exit's intersection there was a guy of about my age standing beside the road. I retired a little bit on the early side last year, but not all that early. I figured him for his late 50's or early 60's.

The guy had a sign. It did not say "Will Work For Food", but I've seen that one too. This fellow's sign simply said "Please Help", and below it said "Vet" and "God Bless". That was all.

The guy was not badly dressed, he was clean and clean shaven. I imagine he was humiliated too.

Tell me again, what kind of work was it that was so difficult to find Americans to do?

My prayers are with this guy. What did you end up giving him?

peace and low stress

with a sign. But, that's me.

I do work in areas that are have a few of these people around and almost of them, after I talk to them and give them a hand out seem to have mental problems of some sort.

Just last week a women who was at least 60 years old told me she needed money for tampons because she just started her period and needed $6.00 cash to pay a box!!!!!

Actually there are reasons other than mental illness that she could think she was having a period.

I did give her a little something considering all I had was ten bucks myself.

.....ARE NO JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO. I'm so effing tired of that argument. :rant:

OMG, don't even get me started on the issue of our VETERANS being out of work, or without a place to live because of some illegal alien.

I've got to go find something to do - - sorry!!!!:cry:

You know, its one thing to ask people who have a roof over their head, a car to drive around in, and food in their stomach whether they voted republican.

To suggest asking that question when they are desperate enough to sit on the side of the road with a cardboard sign asking for help, well...that's just plain wrong.

take a chance and be taken advantage of at all.

.....think I'd ever hear anything so completely and utterly cold hearted:puke: out of anyone claiming to be "liberal". :wow:

ever know.

....these days you might just learn that up close and personal.:bounce:

It's almost impossible to register to vote when you don't have an address, and shelters will rarely let a voter use the shelter address as a residence. Some counties have a list of business/shelter addresses on file and dump registrations that use those addresses. Counties that use mail ballots for most elections disenfranchise those who don't have addresses, too.

Most of the homeless I've worked with would not vote republican at gunpoint, and would be happy if they could just vote at all.

A big reason for homelessness is a lack of identification and/or credit records. You can make enough money to pay for a place to live and still not be able to get one without an ID, a credit history and sometimes a credit card. If you lose your living situation and can't find another one, it's then easy to lose the job, and not be able to get one of those, either. And without ID, one can't vote.

But right now, I would take anything.

And I hate to break it to you, but nine times out of ten, they take that money you give them and head straight for the nearest liquor store. I see them do it all the time.

I keep cards in my car with the address of the nearest homeless shelter. That's what I give them. And I give my money to the shelter.

Sober 9 years now. We can spot each other at 100 paces. This guy wasn't a drunk, and you're hearing that from a guy who was.

And I am not trying to flame you or to criticize your kind deed. I am just sharing what I have learned. I work in the inner city - for almost 30 years now. So I see these people with the signs every single day. And I watch them go to the liquor stores. I also shop at those liquor stores. There is almost always a street person with a sign in there buying booze.

There is a guy here in my city that fought the city's ordinance that did not allow him to stand on the corner and ask folks for money. He got lots of publicity and did win his court fight. He also claimed he makes $30,000 a year standing on the street begging for money.

I do NOT ignore the plight of the homeless. I have spent many hours at a food pantry and I do donate to it and to homeless shelters. I just have learned not to give the people on the street any money.

virtually all of them are either obviously mentally ill/delusional, or they are serious chronic alcoholics/drug addicts (the cops say meth usually). Very few are legitimate down-on-their-luck types. Perhaps at the homeless shelters it's different, but sitting on their asses on the street corners with signs? Always the same doped-up bunch.

:shrug:

Don't even TRY to get me started on the sorry way we treat our mentally ill in this country.

I'm gonna pull rank on this one. My mom has been mentally ill for 25-30 years and wound up on the streets more than once thanks to our lack of concern for the mentally in the US.

Being drunk and a druggie is a matter of personal choice. Being schizophrenic is not.

kestrel91316 (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-30-06 12:08 AM
Response to Reply #14
23. You are SO right. Here in LA we have LOTS of street people, and
virtually all of them are either obviously mentally ill/delusional, or they are serious chronic alcoholics/drug addicts (the cops say meth usually). Very few are legitimate down-on-their-luck types.

This suggests that people with mental illnesses, and alcoholics/drug addicts are not "legitimate down-on-their-luck types".


I'm gonna pull rank on this one. My mom has been mentally ill for 25-30 years and wound up on the streets more than once thanks to our lack of concern for the mentally in the US.

Pull rank? My mother, my two sisters and I all suffer from mental illness. I am also a Rehabilitation Specialist with people who have mental illnesses, and have a BS in Psychology. I'm no novice on this subject.

Being drunk and a druggie is a matter of personal choice.

There are many who would disagree with you. Alcohol abuse and drug dependence are recognized as legitimate disorders by the DSM IV.

Complete list of DSM IV Codes

My fellow Duer, my husband fought to get psych care for himself for YEARS and it never happened and he went homeless. And he was well enough to hang on to the idea that he needed help!

The average time for people to get appropriate psych meds is EIGHT YEARS.

"Always the same doped-up bunch"? I can't tell you how disrespectful, let alone clueless, that statement is of the battle these people face.

I think you have some homework to do and I'll be happy to supply the links.

It's not a personal choice to be an addict when the reason one's an addict is to muffle the voices that never shut up. When the choices are trust no one and live with one eye always open or to turn down the paranoia with a skin-pop, the choice is obvious.

For every mentally ill person who gets help, there are three who do not, and at least one of those is usually on the streets, unable to afford shelter, meds or therapy. Alcohol is not an effective anti-psychotic, but it is an effective sedative, at least at first. Meth starts out as a drug that boosts productivity, letting the user make the most of the 24 hours a day and the crappy minimum wage jobs available. Heroin often starts out as an anti-anxiety drug. They don't work all that well, but in a lot of cases, the illegal drugs feel as effective as the prescription ones, sometimes more so. Alternately, street drugs and alcohol are sometimes used initially to mitigate the side-effects of prescription meds. Prescription meds for serious mental illness have a whole range of very nasty side effects, and street drugs mitigate those better than another, expensive, goddamned scrip (that's not going to work any better than the other ones did), and at least when one goes to the liquor store or the dealer, one doesn't get eyed nastily by the pharmacist or followed around by the security jerk who acts like one is going to steal a pack of gum and a container of Gold Bond Powder. At least the liquor store clerk and the dealer treat the addict like a human being.

And even assuming the person gets the meds, and they work, and the side effects are minimal, and they don't self-medicate... mental illness is such that lots of clients don't realize that meds are maintenance meds, not curative meds (i.e. insulin as opposed to penicillin). When the symptoms go away, a lot of clients think they're cured, go off their meds, lose what gains they've made, and end up on the streets, where the only drugs available are the street drugs. And so the cycle begins.

to homeless shelters?

Everybody thinks they have an answer to homelessness that usually involves blaming the victims.

Sometimes, just helping someone out is the right thing to do.

I often wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't had anyone to help me. I still wonder.