Well, I walked downtown two days ago to meet my two sisters for dinner at a restaurant It was about a 20 minute walk to get there.
I was there before them so I’m standing out front minding my own business and I see a distraught looking homeless man walking towards me on the sidewalk. I assumed he was homeless; he was wearing ragged clothing and needed a shave and haircut badly. He was very agitated and had an angry look and from the way he was screaming to himself I would have guessed that he had schizophrenia. It’s just an educated guess, I guess it could have been something else.
We have a large population of homeless and gang members in my city, especially in the downtown areas including on my street. I sometimes have a problem with the mentally ill homeless. It’s hard to describe. I just look at them too long or I catch their eye when I shouldn’t and some of them get very agitated and angry near me or at me which results in me getting a little nervous or a little scared.
But most of the time I’m cool with them and I will give them a buck or two occasionally. Sometimes I see them and I give them money before they even ask!! But anyways I saw this guy coming and he looked at me and he went ballistic. He stopped and looked at me and started cussing and screaming at me, very hostile and threatening. I did not want any trouble, I just wanted to go to the restaurant and eat and relax and get a break from my problems.
So I walked away around the corner. He went by but then he saw me again and went ballistic again. I got a little angry, but I was more scared than angry. The poor guy. But I’m glad I got angry… I sometimes suspect (I may be wrong) that some homeless people like this guy, pick on certain people, kind of like a bully. I rarely see them-picking on six-foot four, 220 lb men. Oh well.
But guys like that won’t stop me from giving a little money to other homeless people in my city as long as they’re respectful and make at least little effort to be polite. I won’t give money to people like him of course. I understand that they have every reason to be angry at their lot in life, and I can understand that they face problems and bad situations that I will never know. But I don’t give money to street people who are demanding or threatening or rude.
I walked by a homeless women by the 7-11 next to my house about two weeks ago on my street. She was sitting on the sidewalk unaware of what’s going on around her and talking to herself. I don’t have a lot of money but I felt bad for her so I pulled out my wallet and took a five from it and I said kindly, " Here you go, buy yourself a soda". Maybe that was a lame thing to say, but it was a very hot day and we were right at the 7-11. But she looked up and smiled and said “Thank you” and it made me feel good. Anyways, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.