My first response is "trust your higher intuitive self" - but I'm not really sure what that means.

Listen to your heart, ask questions of yourself (which you are doing) and others (maybe the panhandlers). See where your heart and your love of humanity leads you.

Now decide if this result is satisfactoria to you and if it is not - then investigate further.

I don't know if that makes any sense right now but that's where my brain went.

I appreciate you posting.

Yesterday, I watched a hummingbird crash into a glass wall. Not far from the where the hummingbird crashed, there was another hummingbird lying dead on the ground -- I guess it crashed too. I think the hummingbird might have been chased into the glass by one of the many hummingbirds that were flying around. The little bird lay on it's back, wings sprawled, twitching. I gently picked it up in my hands, and a friend did some tea treatments, we fed it some water, sent loving energy, and we tried to get it to feed from the many flowers. It flew up and away and sat in a tall tree to rest, and perhaps recover.

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> I believe, rightly or wrongly, that most of these people are there looking for handouts to support substance abuse -- alcohol, whatever.

70% of people in Canada drink alcohol regardless of their financial standing. Substance abuse cuts across society. It is not limited to any particular so-called group. With more monetary income, substance abuse is easier to support and easier to hide. Most Canadian politicians through our history have been [and are] alcholics.

> The reason I believe this is because I think that Canda's welfare system doesn't let many people through the cracks and that we've got a pretty darn good support system with Salvation Army and other good organizations that will provide shelter and meals to those in the direst of need. So I don't entirely understand why, beyond addiction, someone would need to panhandle.

The welfare system that you think works so well?!? Apply for welfare (provincially run social assistance) office. Do your darndest to qualify -- you must be performing five "reasonable" job searches per day for six weeks before you might get any money for food -- and remember you must qualify. As of this year, there is no longer any emergency assistance. Ten times as much money is paid out by the Canadian government to US-controlled oil companies in Alberta [ in effect a nationalized energy program in private hands with the headquarters in Texas ] than is paid to fund social assistance in BC. There are jobs (sic): to do unsafe work in the tarsands with the rest of the imported labourers (many from Newfoundland and now temporary non-immigrants from China) ; to join the military to murder people in Afghanistan to indirectly support the US invasion of Iraq for their oil; or join the police force to abuse your friends who no longer have monetary income. jobbank.gc.ca/Intro_en.aspx

Go to a shelter tonight. Apply to get in. In Victoria there is one shelter, and it is overflowing. People sleep on the sidewalk all the way down the street from this pathetic shelter. In Victoria, panhandlers are targeted, people sleeping outdoors are abused, possessions like a sleeping bags and food are confiscated by police. homelessnation.org/

> So what do we / I / you do? I'll just throw a stream of consciousness out there:

I think you are wise in not giving out cash. I ask. What do you need? Maybe it's a slice a pizza down the block where the "no loitering" sign is posted. Maybe it's just someone to ask, to listen, to really listen. Yup, we need a stream of consciousness. Again, I appreciate you throwing it here.

If there are more beneficial so-called "choices," I am all ears! What do I do to eat healthy food? What do I do to keep warm for the six or more cold months of the year?

Anybody can panhandle, but I reserve my spare change for those who put some effort into it: musicians, for the most part.

My main charitable contributions, however, are reserved for community work. My Rotary Club sponsors several good works, and I always give to those, or work on local relief efforts within the community. To these In contribute money or simply hard work on my part.

You're right, Blair, Canada's support system is much better than the USA's. Here, the politicians are still following Ronald Reagan's old bromides that people on welfare are seedy characters looking for a handout, which is a popular belief, but it's not true. Sadly, welfare is much like prison reform--it takes a lot of work, and its not pleasant to look at, and it only takes one bad apple to soil the public on the entire program.

Still, you're right, a lot of the people who panhandle are trying to support substance abuse problems. I recall an experiment that a buddy of mine tried. He bought a panhandler an egg-salad sandwich, rather than giving him money. Then he slipped around the corner and watched the beggar try to return the sandwich for money! Didn't work, of course, so he ate the pre-packaged food and continued begging until he'd reached a certain point, then stepped into a nearby liquor store and bought himself a pint of whiskey. Needed something to dull the pain of reality, I guess.

Not all panhandlers are like that, of course, but some are.

The poor will always be with us, but how we treat them is a mark of our own humanity.

i write this from my hotel room in bangkok -- i've been in thailand for a month, and have thought a lot about generosity and charity while i'm here, where beggars might have no legs or be ancient old men sitting quietly on the sidewalk, and where they have truly no chance that their life will change materially in the future, and where even a small amount can mean a meal to someone. and i live in san francisco, where we have many street people asking for money all the time. poor and hungry asking for help is a fact of life.

the reality is that being generous is important... those of us who have must must must be willing to share with those who have not. it is how we bring love and health and kindness into the world, and how we help to balance out things that are out of balance. it is how we spread our love int he world.

and... that does not mean that we are required to empty our pockets to every person we see who would like some of what we have. for me, it isa bout being conscious, and making choices of how i feel my generosity is most effective.

two years ago i began to sponsor a young boy in sierra leone through christian children's fund... he is the youngest of ten children in a famiy living in a mud hut, farming to eke out a meager existence. my very small monthly contribution makes a huge difference there, and his mother and i exchange letters... i get much more from this than i give, i believe.

then, a few months ago, i began to sponsor a young girl in northern thailand (where i come every year for at least a month) through s.o.s. international, an international group that builds villages of houses for orphans with no family connections to create real families together with a mother who also has no family. i visited there last week, and know that my money there will give these young people opportunities they would never have otherwise. when i get home, i am going to begin to sponsor more children in this household, and i encourage each of you to take on something like this as well. it's about 25 dollars a month, a drop in the bucket for any of us but life-changing for the recipients.

and... there will still be people begging in the street. when i see them, i know that they may need soemthing that i can give them and sometimes if they strike my heart (particularly women and children), then i will give what i can -- a dollar, a handful of change, the restaurant leftovers i was going to take home, something that is little for me, but makes a difference for them. yes, they might buy booze or drugs with it -- but to me, if i think that i only want to give to them if they do what i think they should do, i feel uncomfortable. my thinking "you can only have this if you spend it the way i think you should" is a type of control, an expression that i feel that my beliefs are superior to theirs, isn't it? true generosity, it seems to me, is sharing what i have without strings or expectations.

and... i cannot and will not give money or material things to everyone who asks. but what i CAN do is to acknowledge each of them as a human being, living out their karma here in the same physical plane with me. i try to look each and every person who asks something of me in the eye, to smile at them, to speak to them with respect, and to let them know that even if i cannot give them money, i can give them a moment of respect, of being seen and being known.

when I lived in the desert I kept a case of bottled water in the front seat of my car and gave them to the street corner panhandlers when I stopped at traffic lights. Sometimes they declined, but most often they were appreciative. When I get approached coming out of the grocery store I offer them something out of my bag - I'm usually only taken up on my offer by people who have kids. When I was on food stamps (when they looked like monopoly money instead of credits on an EBT card) I'd give those to people who I felt compelled to help out. I guess I have some pretty strong feelings about giving cash/money based on my own experience. I've been homeless (both with and without kids) and know how tough it can be - though I'm sure in 3rd world countries it's much much worse; I'm talking stateside here... anyway, it IS possible to get help but many agencies and shelters have"drug free" clauses as well as requiring recipients to show some level of effort to improve ones own situation like pursuing a GED, joining job core, or actively looking for a job. I saw a great documentary a few years ago about panhandlers - many have more of a psychological need for recognition than an actual need for $$.