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Friday, March 10th, 2006
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10:53p
You can't throw all the starfish back in the ocean. And if you can't tell the starfish from the venomous sea cucumber, it's probably best to only touch starfish you know to be starfish.
I don't give money to people I don't know in some way. Acquaintances, sure. ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) hpsf_phoenix and I have a wonderful constellation of friends; we lend each other money for rent, down payments, you name it big and small. We do it to the extent that we've put ourselves in the way of financial harm. But people hanging out in front of Walmart at 2 a.m.? No.
It's not that someone who makes a practice of hanging out in front of Walmart at 2 a.m. isn't telling the truth about her starving children and whatnot. It may very well be plausible, and the story is certainly more realistic given where she was and when. But first it was money, then food, then a ride - to parts unknown, and direct confrontation as to why we gave her nothing, didn't have room in the car for another person (for sure - drums and books and whatnot, my backseat is rarely fit for people, and we'd just finished a study session which meant it looked more like the library).
I don't like jamming my cash in the front pocket of my jeans when I see someone who is going to ask for money. And goodness knows it's not like I wasn't poor growing up, and am still experiencing isolated pockets of it. I don't recall if my mother ever panhandled; I suspect not. But there are so many - you help the people you're with, people you know, and if there's enough left over after that, you donate to somewhere organized so they can serve more people. So they can get discounts and tax exemptions and feed more people with your ten dollars than if you gave ten dollars to just one person. And for all organized charity's faults may be - the St. Elizabeth's soup kitchen will never have a chance to deceive me. I am not putting myself at risk for carjacking or worse if the starfish turns out to not be starfish. I try to make a difference to the starfish nudging against my foot, in danger of being trod upon - worrying about the hundreds withering on a beach halfway up the coast eventually makes the entire enterprise seem hopeless.
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