All signs lead to a blessing
Panhandling — the rise of it and the legality of it — has for some time been a topic of discussion, and news stories, in our fair city of Little Rock.
You’ve seen intersections that are always populated by a guy or gal holding a cardboard sign asking for donations for various reasons. Also, if you’re like me, you’ve been approached and asked for money outside a store, inside a store, as you waited in a restaurant drive-thru line, maybe even as you were leaving church.
I’ve gone to other cities and seen panhandling done on a bigger scale than it’s done here. But, returning to a major tourist-attracting city this month after having visited it just last year, I was struck by how much panhandling appears to have increased there.
Every 10 feet we walked in New Orleans, it seems we ran into a panhandler or someone “flying a sign” (displaying a cardboard sign asking for money). They outnumbered buskers … the cool jazz bands, the child tap dancers and drummers, the “living statues,” that one off-key a cappella singer.
If you’re like me, your feelings about these requests for aid can change from day to day, from incident to incident.
■ If you’re a church type, you’ve tried to take comfort in all those Scriptures about being a giver and are of the understanding that the giver gets a blessing no matter what the receiver does with the money. But you still wonder if you’re being had whenever you’re hit up, especially by the more aggressive panhandlers who demand, rather than ask, or try to get a certain monetary amount.
■ There are the times you’re hit up and feel frustrated at having been hit up at what you consider to be a bad time or a bad day.
■ There are the times you’re asked for money and wonder why the panhandlers always seem to target the “brokest person in town” (you). ■ If you would rather not open your purse or wallet on the street, you may kick yourself for not having tucked a dollar or two in your fist or an easily accessed pocket, as you had promised to do the last time you were hit up. You may feel helpless: “There are too many