I am of mixed feelings and opinions on this subject. My experience with caring about the down and out among us opened my eyes and changed my thinking about it. Not to blow my own horn, but to explain the basis of my hesitancy, I share this bit of background:
I have been a volunteer for an organization that collected donations from restaurants, grocery stores, banquet halls, pizza shops, bakeries, etc., then delivered them to homeless shelters.
I have worked in soup kitchens, preparing, serving, and cleaning up afterwards for hundreds. Without question, the vast majority of the recipients of these meals were able bodied males of an average estimated age of 25-35, considerably younger than me.
I have ten years of experience working for two large church offices (800+ congregants).
Here is some of what I’ve witnessed first-hand:
Recipients are generally savvy people who play the game better than those whose benevolent but naive intention is to help the poor. They gladly accept the handouts, even ask for another to take back to their sick mother, then walk around the corner and barter them for drugs, alcohol and sex. Believe me, it happens more often than you know.
There are those whose full-time job it is to take charity. In the church office(s), there was a regular monthly routine when the phones would start ringing for money, supposedly for utility and rent bills. We recognized their voices, knew their names, some even had scripts they recited so often we could mouth along with them. Any one of them could have spent the same time and energy looking for work to support themselves and families, but canvassing for handouts somehow seemed more lucrative or appealing.
Food boxes, filled with food for a family of four for three days, dumped out onto the sidewalk because the contents weren’t what they wanted. Believe it or not, at one church that offered dinner and overnight shelter to the homeless, one group balked at the menu and actually got on the church phone and ordered pizza for themselves!
In all my time of volunteer work, I can honestly say that never, not once, did any recipient ever offer to help us or come back to reciprocate in some way, however small. No one. Ever.
Even among the poor of this country, there is a strong sense of entitlement. Folks have been conditioned to believe they are owed something. There is a proverb (not biblical) that tells us, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The underlying problem, however, is to get him to want to fish when it is ever so much easier if you’d just give him one of yours. It has been repeatedly reported that there are employers across this country who are begging for workers, but cannot find reliable people willing to work. If you spend time talking with men and women whose job takes them inside the residences (most often, First Responders), they will tell you of the large screen televisions, the cable boxes, the iphones, lap tops, etc. that they see regularly.
In this vein, I am concerned about the generation of children who are growing up being handed free goods, free food, free coats, free computers, even free cell phones. What are we teaching them? What kind of future do we expect for them or our nation? If privileged children are handed everything, while earning none of it, we say it is to their detriment, that they’ll never have an appreciation for earning something. How are poor children any different in that regard? Surely they are equally deserving of learning the same life lesson!
There has been a piece in the news about a school that now has a washing machine on premise specifically for children who are coming to school in dirty clothes. We have a generation that has children they cannot support, either financially, physically or psychologically. Do we think this younger generation has hope for a more productive future because they grew up getting free goods and services their parents, i.e., role models, failed to supply?
If you’ve read to this point, I am fairly sure you see me in a bad light. Contrary to how it may seem, I truly am not hard-hearted or selfish. I am a Christian who believes in following Christ’s teachings; however, I also believe He believed there are consequences for bad choices. If you’ve read my posts in the Recipes forum, you are familiar with my appreciation for the blessing of abundant food this country has. I don’t want anyone to go hungry, and I fully acknowledge there are some who are truly in desperate need. I just don’t believe we are applying the best policy to handle hunger or poverty in this country. I also believe we need to incorporate a merit system, a means for earning, free goods. Maybe these children could be required to establish a good attendance record, or earn better grades, before we send groceries home to their parents who are sitting there waiting for them. There has to be a better way.
Strive for respect instead of attention. It lasts longer.
Blogs & Forums
Forums
Blogs
