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Smelly people

NOTE: The following is an article taken from World Magazine Blog (www.worldmagblog.com) posted by Marvin Olasky on 1 April 2004. It transmits the impressions of one of his students on the homeless situation, and it was too magnificent to not present in its entirety. -- greg

"One my University of Texas students, Courtney Russell, writes, "Homeless people are smelly, but they provide a service. They’re a signpost in our pretty world that everything is not O.K. 'How much do you want to bet that I can get money for a beer by the time I walk down the street?' asks one homeless man panhandling at Little City on Guadalupe. 'Homeless Suck' proclaim the yellow spray-painted words on a garage dumpster behind the UT Co-Op. We don’t like homeless people, but they make us feel good in one of two ways: for giving a dollar or for not giving a dollar to the man with a sign."


In one case, for a cheap buck we pump ourselves full of “warm fuzzies” because we “sacrificed” our latte. We roll down our car windows and dole out cash at the red light. We smile. We are the sensitive and loving Americans who want to help the needy man. The needy man is dirty, he’s frowning, he looks – well, lost – mentally troubled. Money will help. We want to help the man get a burger, maybe a beer. Let’s fix the problem. Please, filthy man can you just take a bath?
On the other hand, we don’t give money and we’re street-savvy. We’re not part of the credulous society that is taken in by manipulative people. We feel good because we’re “realists.” We read the studies and know that “those” people are lazy frauds who wear tattered clothes to drum up our pity. Scam artists: they purposely misspell words on the cardboard signs, sling on unnecessary bandages, and use the money to purchase alcohol and drugs. By giving them money, we would contribute to illegal activities that would hurt society.

Honestly, we don’t know what to do. Today, maybe 600,000 people in the United States are homeless. Many are mentally ill. They clog our sidewalks. They make us look bad. They make us feel bad. We have quick fixes on how to pass them on the street without feeling crappy about ourselves. But we don’t have a fix for the person. These people are broken. We shuffle them off as someone else’s problem. I mean we did our part – we pay taxes – we feel good about ourselves."