Stories in our Papers
I was a little mad on the weekend when I read this article in the Globe & Mail.
I wasn’t mad because they talked about the initiatives put forth to look after the homeless in Toronto, because as far as I’m concerned, what they’re trying to do is a good thing… stopping the homelessness, rather than what they’ve done in recent years - offer the homeless blankets, and food, and sleeping bags to help them live their lives on the street.
The new initiative is a step forward from what they were doing.
However, the reason I was mad was that I know the guy in this picture. He’s talked about later in the article - referred to as Dave.
This is a guy who spends his days hanging around the beer store in my neighbourhood. He’s always there begging for money for beer - and yet, he’s also always drunk.
I’m mad that a drunk gets his picture in the paper. I’m mad that this guy lives on welfare and complains that most of his money is taken up for rent (hence the begging for his beer money, I guess).
For those of us who are unemployed (and do not qualify to collect welfare or unemployment) the idea that this guy has it rough is laughable - at least he’s got money coming in.
And what about looking for a job? How do you look for a job when you’re always drunk?
I guess I’m just ranting here, but I think that it would have been better for the newspaper to include a picture of the people working on the new homelessness initiative, rather than give the drunk guy some acclaim with his friends.
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when i see some one asking for money on the street, i am more opt now to buy them some food. a lot of times, they accept but there are a few that decline.