I snarled at a scammer today...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

See, if they sold something or busked, they aren't panhandlers anymore. They are vendors and buskers.

Got no problem with either, and I am particularly fond of buskers.

So, pull out a fiddle or just sing something and I will take good care of you. You don't even have to be particularly good, you just have to get off your ass and not be a parasite.

[Arm]

Right, what I was getting at is that the actual buskers, and the ladies who sold flowers, have since left the area.

The people who sit on the recently-built benches have cardboard boxes for you to put money in, but they don't actually *do* anything. They just sit there all day. They don't tend to take care of themselves, either, so they're fat and generally unwashed. The benches were made for three skinny people or two reasonably large folks... but nobody wants to sit next to one of the bums.

-now, don't get me wrong, if someone has no place to shower, that really sucks. But remember, these benches are along the road that is one road over from where the homeless shelter is. The bums all go back to the shelter at the end of the day, and it HAS showers.

actually, let me see if I can illustrate this a little better...

[Shelter]||[parking lot]
[Shelter]||[bank]
---------++---------
---------++---------
[stores] ||[parking lot]
[stores] ||[stores]
[stores] ||[wide sidewalk with benches]
---------++---------
---------++---------
[church] ||[wide sidewalk with benches]
[church] ||[stores]

The benches are where the anti-buskers sit with their little boxes. The shelter is where they go at night.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Reminds me of something that happened to me, once.

I was heading out of town for Otakon in Baltimore, would be spending the night at a hotel in Howard County, MD, and then driving up to Philadelphia for a wrestling show where I was going to meet-up with some online friends.

Before leaving town, I stopped at a shopping center where my bank was located, withdrew some money, and then walked to the other end of that part of the strip to a 7-11 for food and drink. As I'm leaving the 7-11, this guy who I'd seen sort of hanging around outside it calls after me.

Guy: Hey, 'scuse me!
J2K: *turns*
Guy: Are you a fellow Christian?

Now, most of the time when I hear people asking that, they're not about to ask for handouts, they're about to start preaching or trying to hand me a pamphlet or otherwise try to call my faith into question. Sorry, my spiritual views are nobody's business but my own, and I'm not the kind of person to give money to a total stranger hanging around outside a Seven Goddamn Eleven.

So, when this guy opens with that line, I reply:

J2K: Sorry, not interested. *turn around and walk off*
Guy: (angry) WELL FUCK YOU, TOO, BUDDY! I'M JUST TRYIN' TO BUY FOOD FOR MY KIDS, YOU FUCKIN' PRICK!

And he continues on in that vein, fortunately not following me, but hollering the entire time I walk back to my car, going on about how he's trying to get money for food, about how he's a good Christian person, etc. etc.

And I'm thinking to myself, "First off, a 'good Christian person' wouldn't be using language like that, and secondly, a 'good Christian person' wouldn't get so uptight when someone declines to help them. Isn't there something about 'turning the other cheek?'"

But I hold my tongue, don't turn around to confront him, don't even acknowledge him as he continues to harangue me. I get in my car, drive to a different part of the parking lot (where he can't see me) to finish my food before I get on the road.

Now, maybe he was honestly trying to buy food for his kids, and he genuinely is a good person who had just had a really bad morning or something, but if that's your reaction when people turn you down, you're not likely to be getting many 'donations,' pal.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm thinking if he genuinely wanted to buy food for his kids, there is all kinds of programs, shelters, soup kitches, food banks, church food drives, WIC, unemployment, welfare, etc that could help out.

Here's a radical idea, Mr. Just Tryin To Buy Food For My Kids...go to work. Bad economy? Fine. You can temp, show up to a job site (some sites that is all you have to do), sell plasma, offer to wash windows, etc.

Whatever he tries to do, I can bet it would be time better spent than cursing out strangers in a parking lot. He's got time for that, I'm guessing he ain't all that desperate.