TALES FROM THE BARSTOOL
By: Clint Lien

When I first got married my wife made a list of reasons why she loved me. One of the reasons was I gave money to people who lived on the street. There were probably twenty items on the list but that's the only one I can remember now. My hopeless memory wasn't on the list.

I just left the Wendy's parking lot ten minutes ago. As I was getting into my car a most pathetic man approached me. I didn't even let him get three words of his spiel out before I rudely cut him off. I had no time and no money. He told me I needed to do a good deed, and I would feel better about myself and my life. F*cker. Damn I was mad. My ex-wife would have been ashamed. So what's happened to me? And is it just me?

When I was in the habit of giving out coins on the streets of Victoria I was making less than thirty thousand dollars a year. I had car and mortgage payments and I never had a cent left at the end of the month. This year I'll crack six figures and the only payments I have to make are food and rent. So why did I become so cheap - so callous - so numb? I think somewhere along the way I became overwhelmed. The population on the streets seems to have multiplied and my capacity to understand has diminished.

Raise your hand if you feel giving money to the homeless is only making the situation worse. That's a lot of hands. And what have you to say? We're rewarding their choice to live on the street, right? It'll only go to drugs and booze. I work hard for my money to buy my own drugs and booze; why should I give it away to someone who's not willing to do the same? And they don't just come up and ask for money. I guess that doesn't work so well anymore. They've got stories now. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but my car ran out of gas and I've got to get my sick dog." There's a lot of empty tanks and sick dogs in Los Angeles.

If we're worried about how the money is going to be spent then why don't we find a local shelter and toss a few sheckles in their direction? No answer there. Maybe it comes back to rewarding behavior we don't approve of.

But the homeless are different than you and I. They're unable to cope with day-to-day living the way the rest of us do. At least that's what we're told. Sure seems true of some of the street folks I've met, but I gotta say, there's been more than a few times when I've felt about one paycheck away from the street myself. I wonder how different they really are. My grandfather always said if a person really wanted to make it in this country they could. Grandfathers are always saying stuff like that.

So why are there so many homeless and why won't we give a few bucks now and then to help them out? I don't know. Do you?

And if not the homeless, why not some other group. There's plenty of them out there. We all know someone who's died of cancer. Most of us are touched by AIDS. Some of us really do give to organizations supporting these people. But here's the question again. How many among us believe that when you give money to these charities you are, in fact, just giving money to bloated administrations and few of the funds will actually manage to sift down to the people who need it?

We've all heard the statistics - they're curing about two percent more cancer than they were in the fifties. Is that true? Many of us who don't give believe that. We pour a gazillion dollars a year into those babies and people are still dying like flies in the heat.

I think charity is a basic aspect of human nature. I think we want to help others less fortunate than ourselves. I think we've lost faith that we can affect things and make a positive difference so we've stopped trying. Nowadays the only charity we give to is the government and that's because we'll go to jail if we don't. They take between twenty and fifty percent of what you make and for that we expect THEM to take care of the unfortunates, but who are we kidding? For the huge chunk of change those bastards steal from us they don't even take care of the tax payers. The education system is in ruins and forty percent of Americans are without healthcare. So what's the answer?

I don't know. I don't have any answers, but I think maybe I'll go back to the Wendy's parking lot and buy that guy a burger before I settle in for a couple of cold ones.

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