Spare Beer?

Sometimes it is too easy to poor-bash. Especially when, like me, you've been there yourself and you know absolutely nothing about the person you want to bash.  Like this young punk seated in front of my building late this afternoon.  He had just lit himself a cigarette then held out his hand to me saying he was four bucks short for a case of beer.  Fightin' words.  Now I was just returning from the bank where I had been arranging for three thousand dollars worth of Mexican pesos from my chequing account in preparation for my trip in a couple of weeks.  Had that young punk known this he would have been doing everything he could to shake me upside down by the ankles.  And I do not blame any of you reading this for thinking he might well be in his rights to. But the truth is, I am on a low income myself and the only reason I can afford the luxury of travel is that I am very good at budgeting and very strict with myself about money.  Otherwise I could easily be competing with him for sidewalk space.  As I went to open the front door of my building I told the young man "I find what you're doing to be really obnoxious.  This is nothing personal, by the way, and also everyone who lives in this building is on a low income."
     I didn't feel very good about making this comment.  This doesn't mean that I shouldn't have nor that I wasn't entitled to, but it just felt plain darn mean speaking to someone like this.  Especially someone who is already vulnerable, though an absolute idiot.
     Why didn't I offer him money?  If anyone needs to ask this question then there must be something seriously lacking in your I. Q.  Besides setting up shop in my front yard he is not asking money for food or shelter.  He wants beer.  He likely wants to get drunk.  Probably an alcoholic.  He is also next door to the neighbourhood liquor store which is already a blight on our community.  If he wants money for beer then why doesn't he lie about it?  Or get a job and work for it?  But really, you can do all you can to convince me till youre blue in the face and I'm red in the ears but you are not going to persuade me that this guy is employable.  Seriously, would you hire someone like him.  No, don't lie.  Would you hire this young man who thinks nothing of sitting on the sidewalk begging for beer money?  Didn't think so. 
     Maybe because a lot of the patrons of this liquor store are young party animals for whom alcohol is not a privilege but a right and for this reason are likely to be sympathetic towards the young man.  The reason I believe this is from the unthinking adulation that greeted Toronto Mayor Rob Ford when he was here a couple of weeks ago.  For anyone reading this blog who knows nothing of Toronto or of their infamous mayor, Toronto is the largest city and centre of the universe in Canada and the capital city of Ontario, one of our eastern provinces, though they insist on calling themselves Central Canada but geography suggests that that status really needs to go one province west to Manitoba.  What of course has made Mayor Ford notorious is his use of illegal drugs such as crack and alcohol (he is often stinkin', snot-hangin' pissed).  This Mayor of Toronto has made his fair city and our country an international laughing stock for his antics.  And here were all those young twenty-something bone heads hugging him, getting his autograph, getting their photo taken with him.  So, it isn't a stretch to imagine that such young morons would be quite willing and eager to toss the young street punk a loonie or a toonie on his quest to get utterly stupid tonight, further damage his health, perhaps do something stupid or dangerous or make himself vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence or worse.
     I do not know how the poor kid ended up where he is.  Maybe he was raised by a series of foster homes, maybe he was abused by his father, so many maybes and always with the same likely outcome: a socially disadvantaged and alienated youth, unable and unwilling to hold down a job, with addictions, and mental health issues and a chronic tendency to lie because all he can think of is surviving for one more day and all because no one has ever presented him with any attractive or convincing alternative.
     Should I have told him off as I did?  Probably.  I am not going to indulge this kind of behaviour.  Would it have been better to ignore him?  Only two motives for ignoring him: fear and indifference.  Could I have more constructively expressed my concern?  Maybe.  But sometimes shock impact can work wonders.  It's always a crap shoot.