Calling into question.....my sympathies
I'm generally not a very sympathetic person. Probably because I don't have a lot of use for stupid people.
Yesterday on my way home after a meeting in downtown Toronto, I commented to my co-worker that there was a homeless dude keeping house at the corners of Bay and Adelaide. On a warm and cozy vent (prime real estate presumably for a homeless person) this guy had his clothes strewn around just like my 16 year old does in her room. I was a little surprised to see that various people had placed various donuts and cookies there for his enjoyment. I'm not against this. In fact I've been known to throw a couple of bucks here and there to the less fortunate.
Anyway, we got in the van, travelled south on Yonge St to the exit of the Gardiner Expressway. It was a nice afternoon, we'd been holed up in a small hot little boardroom for the better part of the afternoon and I had my window down.
A young guy of around 22-25 came up to my window with a squeegee in one hand and a bottle of water in another and the conversation started a little like this:
Squeegee guy will be known as SG
SG: Sunny Times ahead ma'am?
Me: "No thanks" I say referring to the squeegee thing...I don't want my windows done.
SG: Sunny Times ahead ma'am?
Me: "I said no thanks"
SG: Okay, so you got an extra butt or some extra cash? I got nothing here?
Me: looking at him...specifically his feet..."$100 Nike running shoes, looking pretty new there buddy, so the answer is still no...I mean really get a job. Clearly you've got decent clothes and shoes...GET A JOB!"
SG: So do you watch Trailer Park Boys? Sunny Times ahead?
Me: "You've got cable in your homeless situation?...DUDE, the answer is still no...GET A JOB"!
Finally traffic started to move and after we'd moved up the ramp aways my co-worker makes the following comment to me:
So, do you usually talk to the homeless people like that? No, not usually, I reply but $100 Nike running shoes....c'mon! NOTHING FOR YOU PAL!
She looked at me and smiled.....I think I'll take the GO train from now on!
Alright so maybe this was a little brash on my part but honestly, he didn't look like what I would call a typical homeless person. He was clean, clean shaved and he had on $100 Nike shoes! My kids only wear $100 shoes because someone has given them to them.
I've never been homeless before and I totally understand in my head how this could happen, lack of work, bad situations, mental illness.....all the things you see on TV.
I do however, choose my homeless people carefully. My homeless people will always be the ones that look the part, wild look in their eyes, dirty and unkempt people that really look like they've happened on hard times.
The guy sitting in front of the Theatre...with a bottle of beer between his legs and a cigarette in one hand, holding out a dirty old cup asking passers by for cash in the other doesn't get much sympathy from me. Neither does the guy on the ramp to the Gardiner!
Yesterday on my way home after a meeting in downtown Toronto, I commented to my co-worker that there was a homeless dude keeping house at the corners of Bay and Adelaide. On a warm and cozy vent (prime real estate presumably for a homeless person) this guy had his clothes strewn around just like my 16 year old does in her room. I was a little surprised to see that various people had placed various donuts and cookies there for his enjoyment. I'm not against this. In fact I've been known to throw a couple of bucks here and there to the less fortunate.
Anyway, we got in the van, travelled south on Yonge St to the exit of the Gardiner Expressway. It was a nice afternoon, we'd been holed up in a small hot little boardroom for the better part of the afternoon and I had my window down.
A young guy of around 22-25 came up to my window with a squeegee in one hand and a bottle of water in another and the conversation started a little like this:
Squeegee guy will be known as SG
SG: Sunny Times ahead ma'am?
Me: "No thanks" I say referring to the squeegee thing...I don't want my windows done.
SG: Sunny Times ahead ma'am?
Me: "I said no thanks"
SG: Okay, so you got an extra butt or some extra cash? I got nothing here?
Me: looking at him...specifically his feet..."$100 Nike running shoes, looking pretty new there buddy, so the answer is still no...I mean really get a job. Clearly you've got decent clothes and shoes...GET A JOB!"
SG: So do you watch Trailer Park Boys? Sunny Times ahead?
Me: "You've got cable in your homeless situation?...DUDE, the answer is still no...GET A JOB"!
Finally traffic started to move and after we'd moved up the ramp aways my co-worker makes the following comment to me:
So, do you usually talk to the homeless people like that? No, not usually, I reply but $100 Nike running shoes....c'mon! NOTHING FOR YOU PAL!
She looked at me and smiled.....I think I'll take the GO train from now on!
Alright so maybe this was a little brash on my part but honestly, he didn't look like what I would call a typical homeless person. He was clean, clean shaved and he had on $100 Nike shoes! My kids only wear $100 shoes because someone has given them to them.
I've never been homeless before and I totally understand in my head how this could happen, lack of work, bad situations, mental illness.....all the things you see on TV.
I do however, choose my homeless people carefully. My homeless people will always be the ones that look the part, wild look in their eyes, dirty and unkempt people that really look like they've happened on hard times.
The guy sitting in front of the Theatre...with a bottle of beer between his legs and a cigarette in one hand, holding out a dirty old cup asking passers by for cash in the other doesn't get much sympathy from me. Neither does the guy on the ramp to the Gardiner!
posted by Anonymous at 4:59 pm
2 Comments:
I'm surprised your co-worker would be so judgemental!!!
I've heard on more than one occasion through numerous T.V. investigative reports that some of the homeless people which we feel such sympathy for, are some of the richest people around.
I wouldn't have felt bad for that guy either. I never did and still don't own a pair of shoes that cost $100!!!
Ahh, thats too bad. In reality those kids are weekend runaways. My clients play that game all the time. They are true salesmen, not homeless people. The root of the concept started with a homeless kid I am sure, but I am afaird no longer.
In my expereince I have found that it is the truly less fortunate that rarely ask for a handout. Homelessness can come in many form and outfits. I agree a large protion of the homeless are recently separated people with kids. The woman in your building who would never let you know she is actually living out of her car. It is the people who I encounter that don't ask for anything from me as I walk by. That clearly I can see or sense that they could use a break, those I will put 20 bucks into their palm.
Ramp beggers....their are agencies that are handing out jobs and apprenticeships to youth, no address required. Don't ruin it for the people who really need a handout.
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