Our Easily Offended Vagrants
The front page above-the-fold photo on today's Santa Barbara News-Press is priceless: Two scruffy-but-healthy, tanned young men lounging with their feet on the seat of one of the downtown benches, their slovenly backpacks taking up space on the public sidewalk. Behind them a little hispanic man is diligently tending one of the sidewalk planters (no doubt for wages that Allen and Lars Peterson, 30 and 33 years old, would consider beneath them). These sturdy beggars are complaining about the signs that some merchants in Old Town have posted, signs asking passersby not to give money to panhandlers (who use it mostly for booze and drugs), but to instead give it to one of our many local charities. Allen and Lars are offended at being lumped in with drug users.
If Santa Barbara were not so assiduous in catering to the needs of the so-called homeless, perhaps the outraged sense of entitlement that afflicts the least worthy of our beggars would ebb. In a better world, able-bodied young men resting on public benches meant for elderly shoppers and tourists, and begging for coins in a town full of opportunity, might even feel a little shame.
Article link, unfortunately only good for a week, and requiring registration: http://news.newspress.com/toplocal/070705panhandlers.htm?now=66308&tref=1
If Santa Barbara were not so assiduous in catering to the needs of the so-called homeless, perhaps the outraged sense of entitlement that afflicts the least worthy of our beggars would ebb. In a better world, able-bodied young men resting on public benches meant for elderly shoppers and tourists, and begging for coins in a town full of opportunity, might even feel a little shame.
Article link, unfortunately only good for a week, and requiring registration: http://news.newspress.com/toplocal/070705panhandlers.htm?now=66308&tref=1
posted by sbchurl | 6:03 PM
