LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[March 2nd, 2005] The Mirror Under the Bridge

Dave Fitzpatrick writes like a clever, heartless robot, equating the proliferation of human beings struggling to survive with weeds sprouting in a ditch ["Panhandlers, Inc.," WW, Feb. 16, 2005]. He wonders if panhandlers are victims or hucksters. Maybe they're neither, maybe they're necessary fallout from a system that requires a growing percentage of the population to live below poverty.

Greed is on a rampage in America. A disgraced Hewlett-Packard CEO was recently awarded a severance package of $20 million while this administration continues to cut social programs. More people need to fall off the cliff to balance the greed.

But bottom line, the story makes no sense. Dave describes the dirt, drugs, stubble, urine and lonely mattresses under a bridge that he had to get near (get used to it, America), but implies that beggars "dipping into the revenue stream" are getting rich off the untaxed plunder of spare change.

In a final irony, he takes a swipe at the signers who twist the truth, even as he pens a fake sign and pretends to be someone he's not so he can get his story, get paid, and meet the rent on his own street of dreams. What's the difference?

Whatever revenue stream we dip into, there's compromise, surrender and a long story that's brought us to where we are. Luck, or lack of, is inscrutable, and when we forget this and judge each other, we've lost our humanity.

We're all in this together. WW made the world a little crueler and a lot colder.

Helen Hill
Nehalem

Roll Up the Window

Great start by addressing that there is an issue with the panhandlers downtown dotting our intersections and offramps ["Panhandlers, Inc.," WW, Feb. 16, 2005]. Last week, after reading the article, I was subjected to two separate incidents where these "entrepreneurs" disrupted traffic and almost caused an accident. Since the city can't lock these people up for panhandling, get them on impeding traffic! I almost hit a guy because he jumped out in front of my car to collect change from the person in the next lane.

These are not homeless people to be pitied; they are drug addicts, convicts on the run, sexual predators, and people who have purposely disenfranchised themselves from the system to avoid the law. The real homeless people, who are deserving of our charity and empathy, are the ones the system has left behind. Homeless shelters, Sisters of the Road, and organizations that try to help people on the streets need the money more than the druggie looking for his next fix.

Wake up and drive, people! If you are inclined to give your money to a deserving cause, give it to our schools or to organizations trying to solve the homeless problem.

Lindsay Hall
Southwest Harrison Street

Adding Insult to Poverty

Regarding the Feb. 16 feature article, "Panhandlers, Inc.": To imply that panhandlers, and by proxy the homeless in general, are living it up on ill-begotten compassion shows the sort of disinterested ignorance that perpetuates cultural myths such as the welfare mom living "high on the hog" on public assistance. That myth quickly dissolves when you try and think of how to support a family of three on $546 per month, the maximum TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] benefit for a family of that size (in Washington state). Likewise, many perceptions about the homeless are stereotypes based on a handful of carefully selected realities, expounded by conservative pundits who have never spent a poor day in their life.

To omit the perspectives of those who work with the homeless on a regular basis, and to offer only a cursory paragraph on the extreme difficulties of homelessness out of four pages of near-constant attack, places a greater burden of negative public opinion on a population that is already weighted down by stereotypes (and has other decks stacked against them as well).

How do we expect the homeless to make progress in putting their lives together when this sort of irresponsible journalism makes people feel justified in pushing anti-homeless laws that, among other things, make the very act of occupying physical space illegal? There are hundreds of inspiring success stories out there that could help empower the disenfranchised to move forward with their lives, but how often are these put on Page One?

Ryan Jackson
Vancouver, Wash.

Don't Encourage Them

Dave Fitzpatrick implies that beggars are from all walks of life ["Panhandlers, Inc.," Feb. 16, 2005]. That's just not true. They are almost universally white. Why is it that we don't see more Latino panhandlers, for example? And why is that, just a few blocks away from East Burnside's prime panhandling area, we see so many Latinos, yet no whites, waiting to be picked up for actual day labor?

Fitzpatrick suggests that begging "starts to make sense" due to a variety of reasons. In fact, society should not tolerate such parasitism, or attitudes such as his that foster and support it. To all those out-of-work "glassblowers" begging on our streets: move off them and find real work.

As you have so ably reported over the years, Portland is indeed awash in homeless "families," panhandlers, "gutter punks" and so on. As citizens, we need to stop giving them money, both directly and indirectly.

Peter Bray
Northeast Irving Street