Boogie tunage per request
Moral dilemma of the week
It's appropriate to ask this as we enjoy music from the era when there were still crackheads aplenty. I hadn't seen any crackheads recently as they seemed to have been a herd thinned by attrition then replaced with meth and pill heads, but one has surfaced in my daily life.
Once upon at time, I despised all crackhead and had no real sympathy for any of them. They were everywhere and would steal anything they could get their scrawny, dirty little hands on.
Now, into my daily routine one of the most pathetic creatures I've ever seen has entered. He is a one-armed presumably homeless dude who is either at least 60 or has lived hard enough to look like it. His weight appears to roughly equal his years. The first time I saw him, he had a hospital bracelet on, ripped clothes and some blood stains here and there.
I run into various homeless folks and bums daily. Some I count among my friends, but I'm also wise enough to some of their games to, for example, hide my cigarettes on occasion to avoid handing them all out and having to head back to the store.
This guy though, the first time I saw him, I felt so sorry for him, I actually, for the first time ever, stopped him, asked him if he smoked and offered him a cigarette. He said he had some and didn't need one, then asked if I had dollar. I didn't because I rarely carry cash, but I was stupidly impressed that he turned down the smoke.
Since then, I've discovered he pulled two crack pipes out in front of some people, and today he totally freaked out a friend of mine by making what appeared to be a proposition of some sort involving his mouth. Yesterday, I got fussed at for buying him a soft drink to-go by employees at a local restaurant where they've had to run him off for upsetting customers.
So, enabling is wrong, but I'm not sure if making sure someone has something cold to drink on a hot day is really enabling. Continuing to help the guy, therefore encouraging him to hang around, is upsetting non-crackhead people who I've known longer and probably have a greater moral obligation to care about. If his behavior is running off paying customers, that hurts the income of good people.
Yet he is pathetic as hell and has never been anything but polite to me. What little money and cigarettes I have just start flying out of my pockets when I see him.
WWJD?
Friday editorial comment
Well that was a real downer.
Kato, Don't let it get you down. I don't think that is being an enabler at all. Now if you were giving him whiskey, that would be different. Your act of generosity may be the only since of humanity that man is ever shown. If his life ends on the streets, he'll remember people like you and it will reaffirm his sense in humanity that he must have lost a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteSassy
My response and attitude towards people who basically live on the street, is if a cigarette or drink will make their day a little better, so be it...I'm not going to begrudge anyone who already has to live their life some little "something" that will make some kind of difference in their day.
ReplyDeleteWhen I occasionally hand someone some cash down by McD's, I realize they may not use it for food...And that's entirely up to them...I've made the gesture and I hope it's made some small difference in their life...At least for that day.
Jules
Jules, I agree with you for the most part. We are always going to have street people because our laws allow that. I understand what you mean by giving them a alcohol or a Cig. How you are saying if that's all they will ever have, to make them happy, than so be it. I guess I would like to think that if I gave them a little something more, that would make their life more fulfilling, I would rather do that. Maybe take them to a shelter where someone had the means and the right tools to help a homeless person. I would rather hand them food, or give them clean clothes and maybe purchase a motel room for them one night so that they could go in and get a nice shower and sleep in a safe place.
ReplyDeleteSassy
I guess what I don't understand is what are they doing with their food stamps? You don't have to have an address to get a food stamp card, and you can't live like a king, but shouldn't one person be able to feed themselves on $200 a month?
ReplyDeleteAs for the drink or the cig, I guess it could be a comfort, but I don't feel right about supporting a killing habit like cigarettes, and in my mind a drink should be lower on the priority list - like AFTER you have food and shelter.
Jules and Sassy, I appreciate what you've said. It's reassuring to know that others have similar "weaknesses."
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
Your assumption of $200/month in food stamps is a little off. Not everyone that is poor receives food stamps. There are barriers, particularly when someone's grasp on reality as the rest of us see it isn't too tight.
The point about a drink or cigrette, or in this person's case crack he's going to buy with whatever money he receives or saves, is essentially a truism. An addict, by definition, has their priorities screwed up. If they have or had food stamps, they'd sell those for the habit.
-kato