Homelessness Not So Easy to Ignore

Note to readers: The following Roger Simon column was first published in May 1997.

WASHINGTON — He is a tall, thin, neatly dressed man, wearing a windbreaker and chinos. He carries a squat, red, plastic gas can under his arm.

He never confronts you head on — he knows people do not like this — but waits for you to get a half-step past him before he says both quietly and urgently: "Excuse me?"

You pause and turn back toward him.

"I just ran out of gas," he says, "and you won't believe this, but I left the house without my wallet and ... "

Sorry, I say. Then, I turn and keep walking.

My friend is shocked. "You're really not going to help him?" she asks.

He hasn't run out of gas, I say. It's a scam. He's a panhandler.

We walk a few steps and turn and look at the man as he approaches another couple. He likes to approach couples: He believes men are more generous when they are with women.

"How do you know he hasn't really run out of gas?" my friend says. "He's got a gas can."

It's a prop, I say. Anybody can get a gas can. I'll bet if we come back tomorrow, he'll still be here.

My friend is troubled by this. "If he is a panhandler, don't you wonder why he goes to all this trouble?" she asks. "Don't you wonder why he does this?"

I shrug. I have read the articles: Psychologists say that chronic beggars are not trying to get money for drugs or booze, as many of us think, but suffer from a variety of mental disorders. However, that is an explanation, not a solution.

In Massachusetts, the state supreme court ruled that non-aggressive panhandling was a form of free speech, protected by the Constitution. But Washington, D.C., and many other cities have laws against panhandling because citizens and tourists are tired of being shaken down every few feet.

If you give money to everybody who asks for it, you'd never get down the sidewalk, I say to my friend.

"So, that's an excuse to give money to no one?" my friend asks.

I don't have an answer. But when I get back to work, I dig in my desk for a letter that arrived a few days ago from Marsha Teichelman of Lubbock, Texas.

She wrote to tell me about a family trip and especially about her daughter, Carrie.

When Carrie was 10, the Teichelman family went to San Francisco on vacation. Before they went, Carrie asked her mother if they would see homeless people there.

Marsha said they probably would, and Carrie asked if she could give them food or money.

"We'll see," her mother said.

The family went to San Francisco and had a wonderful time. One night, they went to a restaurant and Carrie and her sister split a pizza but ate only half of it. Carrie asked if she could take the remaining half outside and give it to a homeless person.

Carrie's father was concerned about safety and Carrie's teenage sister was embarrassed by the whole thing, but Carrie's mother gave her permission. And she and Carrie went out onto the streets of San Francisco looking for homeless people.

They weren't hard to find.

Carrie and her mother offered the food to one person, but that person said he wanted only money. Then, they saw a young lady outside the parking lot entrance in Union Square with a paper cup in her hand. They asked her if she wanted a nice, warm pizza.

The woman took it, thanked them and said, "God bless you." A few feet away, a man sitting on a curb was watching this and said, "Guess I missed out."

Carrie's mother said she was sorry, and the man said that was OK and smiled.

The next morning, after a breakfast at Burger King, Carrie asked if they could do it again. Her mother agreed, and they bought an extra sandwich and coffee and went out onto the streets.

They found a man instantly and offered him the food, and the man said, "God bless you."

That night, after dinner, Carrie took some food to a man she found sheltering over a heat vent on a corner across from the restaurant. He thanked her warmly.

Mrs. Teichelman never forgot those people. "They enriched our lives immeasurably and are a special memory that Carrie and I will carry in our hearts all of our days," she wrote me. "I have heard all the reasons not to give to panhandlers — that it only encourages them or supports their bad behavior. But it isn't our place to judge. Rather, it is our place to help, especially when it really costs so little."

It would be easy to dismiss Mrs. Teichelman's letter as naive and point out the bad things that could have happened.

But she and her daughter decided to take a great risk — the risk of helping strangers — and they got a great reward.

To find out more about Roger Simon, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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