I read this article in the Bee today and I had several thoughts.
One, I don't see the problem in groups of people handing stuff out on the street. Sure, there may be some residual litter or messes to clean up later, but the fact is that people are willing to give and I'd hate to see the City or County try to regulate this kind of informal community service by banning it altogether.
On the other hand, though, it makes me think about what happens after a service group leaves the scene -- should we be willing to go the distance and care about the physical environment that is affected by our actions? And should we be equally concerned with making sure that handing out food or clothing won't cause other problems, like those mentioned in the article?
Just something to chew on as we prep for Dec 10.
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Erik-
I think that it is absolutely our responsibility to comb the park afterward and pick up trash that was from our efforts. I think that looking out for our environment and appeasing the city (where possible) is important in our efforts because we really want to partner with others in doing good.
I have to admit that part of the article just rubs me the wrong way. I don't buy into the idea that church groups and citizens should not hand out stuff because it may not be up to code or trash gets left around, etc... Sure, groups need to be respectful of the environment, and that is really a no-brainer to me at least. But in the bigger picture, this seems to be a question of whether it is the job of organizations (or the government) or non-affiliated citizens to do this type of work. And in my opinion, it is both, but it sure is not the job of the government to do this solely or for organizations on their own, as if they had absolute authority and power to govern what people can and cannot do in the name of charity (and how people ought to do it). Obviously this needs to be a team effort because we still have homelessness and we still have issues on the streets even in the midst of organizations at work. And more than all of this, the Christian church needs to set the pace for all of this.
When articles get printed as such, I cringe a little because it is such a turn off to turn away love in the name of less litter or less defecation on the sidewalk. Don't get me wrong because I don't want those things, but at times there is a cost when we love people and we ultimately cannot control what others will do with food, clothing or money that we give away. Maybe I am just cranky, but I feel a little bothered by that idea.
I think the solution rather is to cooperate with local orgainzations, be clean where possible, and have an ultimate aim of feeding and clothing people (and hopefully one day getting off the streets).
I met a guy once in a Philosophy course I took at Fullerton JC. It was deemed illegal to pass out food to the homeless in a part of town, and so when he made the deliberate choice to hand a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a homeless man (despite the officer's warning), he went to jail. That is noble in my eyes and also indicative of laws that drive me nuts, though I can see the need to establish laws to keep places clean and such.
I agree Ryan, I also cringed when I saw this article. Doing things out of love can always result in some unintended consquences, so it's important to have some persepctive.
The biggest tragedy, I think, more so than litter or other peripheral problems, is the fact that there is just an attitutde towards people who are struggling -- this is especially prevalent among people in positions of power. They listen to business owners and other arrogant folks who miss the point entirely of what people with good hearts want to do. It's more poiltically savvy to pander to those who have money and own property. Then articles like this get printed, and it feeds the machine that we should blame the victims and those who serve them. I hope no ones tries to get an ordinance passed that restricts informal giving, but it's been done in other place, as noted in your story about the guy who got arrested for handing out a sandwich.
Such active resistance is a common them I've heard throughout many circles of people working for justice. It's scary but it can be powerful. I had some friends in Philadelphia who work with an organization called the Simple Way, and they purposefully disobeyed a New York City law a few years ago by sleeping out on the streets with the homeless in Manhattan one night. They were all arrested, later sued the city, and won their case. The cash award they received was handed out on Wall Street to passersby as a testimony against the city and those in positions of power.
If only I had the guts to do something like that....
Good words, Erik. What a great story of courage too.
I was thinking a little more about this while driving around these past couple of days and I think that when we simply ignore issues like poverty and homelessness and expect the government and other organizations to do the job for us, we will never see the job done. That's the truth about it and often times an article as such probably lends itself toward placing the responsibility on the gov't and organizations rather than all of us, every human being. That's scary to me.
Unfortunately I think that an article as such simply reinforces a social norm that it is the government's job to deal with the homeless and down-and-outers and that other citizens should sit back and let the professionals do their job (as if you needed to be "professional" to hand out food or talk to others about housing and life situations and try and help someone move up in society). Ridiculous and I could go on and on about that. It makes me mad.
People's lives are messy and so when we choose to love messy lives, there just might be a mess. Loving others may not always be as clean, optimistic, safe, and neatly packaged as we'd like it be, huh.
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