A Nation of Beggars

Mack Hall

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

- E. Y. Harburg, 1931

One pities the dozens of beggars in decaying third-world countries who line the roads with their cans out and who importune the traveler in parking lots. I’m speaking of the USA, of course.

Last Saturday in Beaumont a large pickup truck pulled up next to me and the driver grinned at me with her remaining teeth and assured me she wasn’t going to hurt me. When the first words from a stranger are that she’s not going to hurt you, you know you’ve made a friend.

My new friend said her husband had abused her, and showed me a band-aid on her arm to prove it. He was now in jail, she said, and assured me that she was a country girl, and I said no and rolled up my window; she still had some teeth, and they looked dangerous when bared. I didn’t catch the rest of her monologue, but I don’t think it was a blessing. She then drove around the parking lot trying to make new friends, but with little success.

In most countries the beggars don’t drive newer and bigger cars than the beggees, but, hey, we’re a shining parking lot on a hill.

More beggars lined the road at many intersections on the way home, asking for money for a catalogue of good causes. In one small town a number of young people begged for money so that they might enjoy a safe graduation night. I, for one, am unclear on the concept of teens standing in the middle of a four-lane highway in traffic so that they might be safe on some other occasion.

“Hey, kid, here’s…oops! Watch out for that 18-wheeler! Here’s a dollar. Be safe.”

Instead of money perhaps we could give them advice: “Hey, kid, don’t get drunk and drive after you graduate, okay? There might be some other kid standing in the road begging for money.”

Recently I looked up on www.charitynavigator.org a charity that had suddenly become fashionable, and, hey, who wouldn’t want to help a harp seal / abandoned piranha / little human? I made no friends when I pointed out that the president and CEO of the charity takes an annual rake-off of over $300,000 and that another fellow, listed as the former president and CEO, helps himself to another $300,000 every year.

The line between generosity and cynicism is a thick one. If a child is hungry, feed the child. If a man asks you for money for a hungry child and the man’s keeping $300,000 for himself, don’t give it to him.

Give it to me.