TORONTO STAR's Jim Coyle on Panhandling
Begging the poverty question
Aug 28, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Coyle
That's been some public mugging the down-and-out have taken the last few weeks.
The middle-class commentariat was practically aboil with fear and loathing at panhandlers after an out-of-town visitor was allegedly stabbed to death in an altercation with four transients.
The rhetoric was so dehumanizing – panhandlers as insects – it's as if in their own charmed lives the outraged have never known anyone brought low by mental illness, addiction, bad breaks and bad choices (the usual routes to the street).
But trust Tim Huff of Youth Unlimited, author of the recently published children's book The Cardboard Shack Beneath the Bridge, and a man former Lt.-Gov. Hilary Weston said knows most of the folks living under the Gardiner Expressway by name, to put it in perspective.
Huff was one of four Toronto outreach workers who tried to calm the hysteria among those who spill more in a week from their designer coffees than gets dropped into most outstretched paper cups.
Why, Huff and his colleagues wanted to know, in an instance of murder, was the focus on panhandling? Why was licence taken from one dreadful act to further stigmatize those already marginalized?
And if a crime by one member of a social cohort is reason for a blanket crackdown, why weren't there similar calls to ban the military after a homeless man was beaten to death a few years ago by reservists.
Yes, panhandling is annoying. Yes, some of it is done by able-bodied idlers. Yes, some of it (not least of all by hospitals and reputable charities) is aggressive. Yes, some of the take is bound for the nearest LCBO. And, no, the small change donated will hardly solve the large problems of a society of increasing economic apartheid.
But no one ever seriously said otherwise, ever considered small private charity a social policy or cure-all. If it provides temporary comfort to the recipient, fleeting satisfaction to the giver, and maybe, just maybe, helps someone back on their feet, that's enough.
Perhaps the most interesting squawk of indignation came from someone suggesting police ticket "bleeding hearts" spotted tossing coins to panhandlers.
Not least of the potential ramifications of such a measure, presumably, would be the Charter challenges that might ensue as to freedom of religion.
In Islam, almsgiving is a cardinal duty. "Give to the near of kin their due and also to the destitute and wayfarers," says the Qur'an. "(If) you lack the means to assist them, then at least speak to them kindly."
In Sikh gurdwaras are kept a community kitchen – a langar, taken from the Persian word for almsgiving – where the poor are given asylum; a symbol, beyond the tangible help, of equality and removing caste barriers.
At Jewish simchas, a place is often set for the needy, from the instruction in Nehemiah to "send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared."
To eliminate admonitions to charity from Christian texts would cut most volumes – and any account of Christ's teachings – by half. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
If, as has been said, the poor are always with us, giving to the poor seems to have been a core spiritual teaching in all cultures.
No holy book says to do this because it will eradicate poverty, or only if the donation will be spent in approved ways. They say do it because it is good and right.
Even if it really is a nuisance when we're trying to go shopping.
Jim Coyle usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Signed,
The (Thanks to Mr. Coyle for saying it in a way that I could not) Mississauga Muse
