On vagrants and beggars

I'm getting sick of people asking me for money.

No, I'm not talking about the government, bill collectors, or the "evil" corporations flogging their Chinese-made wares, I'm talking about the bums downtown.

I can always tell when the Social Assistance cheques are out - the bums have cigarettes.

So, for a few days each month, I can walk around downtown relatively undisturbed.

But then, mere days later, the same faces keep coming up to me;

"Can ya spare a smoke?" or "Got any spare change?"

Today was no different.

As soon as I got off my bus on Isabel at Sargent, a gaggle of vagrants came up to me wanting cigarettes. "Sorry, I don't smoke," I replied politely. "Well, fuck you!" came the reply.

Nice.

Which put me in a foul mood by the time I got to work. As I'm normally in a foul mood at work, nobody noticed.

So, after an insanely busy (but good & productive!) day - nine hours of constantly ringing phones - I was exhausted, and more than happy to see five o'clock roll around.

No sooner do I get off my bus and walk a block east...

"Hey buddy, do you got any change?"

(sound of CJ snapping)

"Buddy, I just worked my ASS off for nine straight fucking hours! Why the fuck should I support you because you won't get up off of yours?"
Wisely, he walked away without saying anything.

I felt a tad guilty, as I am well aware some people are truly in need.

Guilty, that is, until I saw the same guy an hour later carrying a half-empty mickey in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

Sometimes, we unfairly stereotype the indigent and homeless. Sometimes those stereotypes are bang on.