For a few years now, I have been taking notice of more homeless people on the street when I am shopping or in town for some other reason. I can’t help but feel bad for them, but I also choose to ignore them and to not donate to any of them not out of spite or greed, but because it is hard to tell which one’s are genuinely homeless or are begging to keep themselves alive.
I can’t quite imagine what it might be like for one of the genuinely homeless people out there, who have to resort to begging from strangers to keep themselves alive just to be told that they are probably going to spend the money on drugs or alcohol instead of what they need to live. Sure, there are those out there who do spend their money on those things, but it makes living much harder on those who really are trying to keep themselves alive on the streets. People seem to treat them like they enjoy living on the streets, begging for scraps from people who couldn’t give two cents about whether they live or die tomorrow. It is hard to imagine the loneliness and pain that they must feel whenever they are generalized with the worst among them, who very likely do not make up the majority of their population.
