Geeky Chic

I’ve written about the Care Not Cash Initiative before; it was a San Francisco ballot measure that passed earlier this year. It sought to redirect the general assistance that the homeless in the city receive to homeless services (i.e. soup kitchens, shelters). Fortunately, the Board of Supervisors (SF’s equivalent of a city council) has prevented it from taking effect (I’ve thrown “fortunately” in because even if the GA checks are cut off, the city’s existing services cannot handle the homeless’ needs. In the ongoing debate over the initiative, John Burton, a local politico, has tried to remind the public that the homeless are not evil; he’s paid for signs in the city that say, “Jesus gave to the homeless,” and “Saint Francis was a begger.” These signs serve to counter the billboard’s thanking Supervisor and favored mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom (the man behind the CNC initiative). I really like Burton’s signs; they bring back all of the lessons about giving to the poor from my nine years of Catholic school. The story that I remember the most, about the man who had $21, and gave the begger $20. The begger was greedy, and wanted the last $1, so the man gave it to him. That was a lesson in selflessness, even when the needy are being selfish (can you call it selfishness when they’re struggling for the bare necessities? No.).

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This all serves my second encounter with the old Chinese woman begging for money downtown. I saw her afterwork today, as I walked towards the bus stop. I then went to Citibank to take money out for dinner. I took out $50 (this ATM dispensed tens too), and walked back and gave the old woman a $10. I turned around to walk to the bus stop, and after about 20 feet, I realized that she had ran after me, shouting “young lady” in Cantonese. When I turned around, she tried to give me a plastic bag with two Chinese pears (I also noticed that she had the plastic bag from an upscale Chinese restaurant in the financial district; it looked like leftovers). I told her, “no,” in Cantonese, and continued on. When I turned back to glance at her, I saw that she wasn’t walking to her usual begging spot; she was walking in another direction. I think this meant that she had received enough to call it a day. At this point, I was tearing up just a little. On one hand, I allowed this woman to get out of the chill of the SF summer. On the other hand, I should have been the better person, and given her $50. In the end, it’s the same as buying my friends a round of drinks at a bar with an irritating crowd on a Saturday night. It all goes back to what I have said before: they are all our grandparents.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2003 at 2:29 am and is filed under Legalese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.