GUEST COLUMN: "Not One Red Cent"

Let me set the scenario. We've all been there, right? You're walking down Spruce toward Wawa with some of your friends to get some food. As soon as you and your friends approach the door, the man asks the inevitable question, "Can you hook me up with a little change when you come out?" Arrrggghhh!!! Help!!! What to do? He knows that you set foot in Wawa in order to spend money, and must inevitably come out with some change from the money you have spent. Throughout their time in the store, people sweat out the dilemma of whether to give "Bob" some change. Not me!!! I pride myself on the fact that I have never given, nor will ever give, a homeless person one red cent. Not one! Now just wait a minute. Before you condemn me by saying that I am an unfeeling, uncaring, ultra-conservative pig, at least listen to the reasons for why I feel the way I do. First of all, while growing up in a largely working-class city, I was brought up with the idea that one must work for what one has. This means no handouts to people -- such as the homeless -- who do nothing to earn the money that they beg for, except for standing around Wawa trying to peg saps who feel a certain amount of pity for them. Of course, a few people might argue that the majority of students here receive a free handout because their parents pay for them to attend a prestigious Ivy League university that costs in the neighborhood of $25,000. However, there is one very distinct difference between the students' handouts and the handouts to the homeless: The students have worked very hard in high school to maintain academic excellence and achieve the goal of attending a university. Meanwhile, the homeless hang out in front of Wawa waiting for good fortune to come to them -- and not vice versa. Let's just pretend that I get hit on the head with a bowling ball and change my mind about giving money to the homeless. Say I give a homeless person a dollar? What the hell is he going to do with the money?!? I suppose that he could buy some food or maybe even a cheap blanket for warmth. However, there is the possibility that he could take his newfound wealth, go to the nearest liquor store, buy some ripple -- ever seen "Sanford and Son"? -- and get stone-faced drunk. Hey, maybe he could go buy some Marlboros or Kools and pollute his system with nicotine. Or better yet, maybe he could go to a street corner and obtain some prime-product crack cocaine that has the capability to ultimately kill him. Whoever gives a homeless person money does not know what the beneficiary is going to do with it. The simple fact is that, in many cases, homeless people get bad attitudes too easily when it comes to the money that they are begging for. I wonder what a homeless person would do if you gave him money on the condition that he tell you what he plans to do with it. My guess is that he will look at you like a crazed lunatic, tell you that he would go get a burger or a cup of coffee -- which could very well be a lie -- or just not take the money because you're asking him too many questions. One of my friends told me a story that is a perfect example of the bad attitudes many homeless people display when they are begging for money. While my friend was in New York, he gave money to a homeless man. However, after my friend gave the man some money, the man aggressively pursued him for more money and cursed my friend out when he did not comply with the man's wishes. What right did this gentleman have to show anything but gratefulness toward my friend, who parted with some of his hard-earned money to benefit the man? I'm not a narrow-minded, ignorant fiend who thinks the homeless can just get up and go get jobs like magic. It just does not work that way. I know that many homeless people are very educated, have lost their jobs and no longer have any means with which to support themselves or their children, or just simply have no choice in correcting their respective situations. I am very sympathetic to the situation of the homeless and hope that a solution to this problem, such as the creation of more jobs by state and federal governments, can be found in the near future. But hey, a problem as enigmatic as this cannot be solved overnight. Just don't ask me to take money out of my pocket in order to help someone else when they have done nothing to earn either my money or my confidence. If a person doesn't earnestly attempt to improve his situation by truly helping himself -- not by taking scraps of money from others -- he can never be a better person and will never be independent. I'd like to get the attention of those of you that are still going to give money to the homeless, even after reading this. The only way a homeless person is going to help himself by begging for a dollar is if he can somehow parlay that dollar into a million dollar fortune. Trust me. You're just crazy, naive and stupid if you think that will ever happen. Shawn Jackson is an Engineering sophomore from Detroit, Michigan.