{"id":180,"date":"2005-11-30T09:08:12","date_gmt":"2005-11-30T13:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/30\/bums\/"},"modified":"2006-12-01T12:01:47","modified_gmt":"2006-12-01T16:01:47","slug":"bums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/30\/bums\/","title":{"rendered":"Bums"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HelpHere is a link to a News Story video for you, Click Here<\/a>. The whole gist of it was a reporter went out and offered a bunch of guys panhandling $20 if they would do an hours worth of manual labor and all but one refused.<\/p>\n

This story reminded me of a time about 15 years ago when I managed a store in Santa Barbara, Ca. A group of pan-handlers “worked” the intersection out front and when they had accumulated enough money, they would come into my store and buy the cheapest jug of wine I sold and a pack of cigarettes. They would then return to their “Camp” located in a field behind my store and drink until they passed out. Eventually, they would wake up and do it all over again. I remember thinking to myself what a sad existence this must be.<\/p>\n

More recently, when I worked at the Mall in Frederick, Md. The very busy intersection on my way home one day yielded a man holding a sign that said…”Traveling disabled Veteran, Please Help”. The fella must have took a respite from his road trip because I saw him regularly for the next two years. A quick chat with the clerk at the Convenience Store at the intersection confirmed my suspicions… beer, smokes & drugs.<\/p>\n

Now I’m not doing that “EVIL-STEREOTYPING” that I’m sure has popped into your head by now, I’m sure there are plenty of legitimate cases. All I’m saying is that when I give charity, I don’t wish to support an individual’s debilitating habit. I remember a time in my life when approaching the entrance to a grocery store and spying the Salvation Army bell-ringer, I felt awkward and wanted to walk by this individual as quickly as possible with my head down… Just someone else asking for a hand-out. Life experience has taught me differently now and I don’t hesitate to drop what can in the bucket because I feel good that my donation is going to folks who have a real need.<\/p>\n

End of Rant
\n\/Rant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a link to a News Story video for you, Click Here. The whole gist of it was a reporter went out and offered a bunch of guys panhandling $20 if they would do an hours worth of manual … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}