Compassion to one animal may not be compassion to another

[amolibertas]

I was walking through a mall strip the other day and a gent had seen me consider buying my boyfriend a soda. We decided against it, but he caught that I had some ones, obviously, because he immediately came upon us and asked if we could "spare some money, he wanted to get some food." Well, maybe I'm just a sucker, but I always open my wallet and

Comments

[spyral_path]

Loving the "are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" vibe in some of the comments to this post.

If I was homeless I can't say that I wouldn't be eating off the mcdonald's dollar menu because cheap vegan food that's actually filling usually requires preparation and that's hard to do when your "home" is a pile of blankets in a doorway. I hope I'm never in that position but I'm not going to judge someone who is. I'm not even going to begrudge people using drugs or alcohol because if I lived on the street I'd probably want to stay drunk all the time too.

I do frivolous things with my money all the time so I'm not going to expect anyone, even the panhandler I give my dollar to, to only spend their money on nutritious food.

[kill_inhibition]

There's a difference between nutritious food and food that came from a tortured animal.

I guess it depends why you're vegan. I'm vegan because I'm against cruelty towards animals. I wouldn't be okay supporting the most violent industry on the planet.

And, fwiw, I do have family members (including my dad) who are frequently homeless. I still wouldn't give him cash. I would pay for things if he needed it but I wouldn't just hand him over money.

[owlsie]

Yeah dude, as someone who was homeless on and off for ten years this post/thread is all kinds of headdesk-inducing.

1: Homeless people aren't all drug-addled losers.
2: A high proportion of them are mentally ill, which makes sustaining a healthy, nutritious, ethical diet difficult.
3: Cheeseburgers are cheaper and easier to acquire than tofurkey.

[owlsie]

>>And there I was, buying a damn burger for a hobo.

....Lovely.

My poor and semi-homeless best friend probably buys animal products with the $$ I wing to him occassionally, but I'm not gonna judge him for it. Poor people have to eat. The dollar menu is cheap. I'm not gonna morally judge someone and expect them to starve because their diet makes me feel icky.

[amolibertas]

I think terminology is the least of anyone's worries on this particular issue. I'm not morally judging ANYONE. I'm not thinking that this "possibly" homeless person is any more horrible than my coworkers for the food choices they make. I don't stare at people's plates and make them uncomfortable about their choices

[owlsie]

It's not "terminology". It's an insult.

>>And if I were judging them for being homeless

ugh w/e you called the guy a hobo when you admit you don't even know he's homeless. That is judgemental.

[amolibertas]

I didn't call him a hobo because his asking for a burger = he is a "hobo." I used the term hobo because that's the general label you use. Some people would take offence at the use "Homeless", just as some black people are offended at the term black, and some are offended by the term "African american" cuz ya know, they're "Not from fucking Africa!" AS I've had told to me.

Labels labels labels. Maybe he's not homeless. Maybe he's not penniless. Maybe he just gets jollies from randomly asking folk for money and cackles mentally as he walks away because now he can upgrade his cell phone.

He asked for money for food.
General assumption made is that he doesn't have money for food.
Generally people who don't have money for food also tend not to have a roof over there head.

Stereotypical assumption, perhaps.
Judgmental asshole from atop my pedestal of entitlement? No.

[iammightee]

The "there are services available to feed them" comments are making me a little mental. I run a project that helps clothe the homeless for the winter, so I know a bit about the "services." There are hundreds of thousands more homeless than there are space for them in shelters or food to give them. To say "there are services" and make it someone else's problem is naive in my opinion, and reflects having bought into the stigma that homeless people are responsible for their own situation and could fix it if they chose. That is not the case for a large percentage of homeless persons.

I understand your concern about what they do with the money, but a wise (vegan) friend of mine once told me this: "Whether I give them money or not is between me and God; what they choose to do with it is between them and God." Whether you believe in a god or not, the point holds. By giving them assistance, you are choosing compassion. They may choose nutrition, they may choose self-destruction, they may choose any number of things, but that's not your

[catnip13]

I give money sometimes, but I am far more likely to hand someone the leftovers from a restaurant meal, or a clif bar or some oranges from my tree. Or, especially when someone is out at night near my place, I'll go home and make them a couple PBJs and a hot drink if it is cold, or a big bottle of water if it's hot. Maybe grab a banana or two if I can spare them. One time in winter, I took a woman an old jacket of mine, a stocking cap, a pair of warm socks that I had just darned, some stretchy gloves, a big jar of hot cocoa, some fruit, a couple of sandwiches, and then tucked a $5 in the jacket pocket. Were I wealthier, that would have been a lot more.

[thalestral]

Yeah, people living on the street do not have the luxury of making some of the decisions that we do. If they need a hamburger or alcohol or anything to make their lives a little bit better and more bearable then so be it, I'm not gonna judge them for that. The resources and services available to take care of people living rough are completely overstretched, a few spare bucks can make a huge difference for that one person