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        * Quoting Tom Rightmer from a message to Ron Taylor  * 
TR> to live and let live whenever possible. I offer information about 
TR> shelter, food, and other forms of assistance. I might also add that 
TR> some street people become very good sources of information for 
TR> the thoughts of others. I might add that I help with food, clothes, 
TR> and not their booze or dope.
I wanted to chime in and say that when Don talks about true freedom - this is
what he is talking about, I think. Your quote above is just totally 
patronizing
- _you_ have mixed feelings about "street people," _you_ think that they are
okay, as long as you don't see or hear them or have to talk to them, _you_
decide what they should do with their money, the alcoholism rate in the 
olice
profession is widespread, but someone with no home can't get drunk on your
fifty cents. 
The fact is that aside from the hobo lifestylists you are talking about, most
of the homeless are transient and temporarily homeless, if they even are
homeless. I've held a full-time job, paid my rent and all my bills, and still
gone dumpster diving just to eat (you won't believe how many pizza places 
throw
away hot, full pizzas) because my job didn't pay nearly enough. 
Where I live, panhandling is illegal if it is done near an ATM, near a bus
stop, if you ask twice, if you touch the person you are asking, etc etc. Laws
like that are classist in nature and are symptomatic of a society that forces
people into desperate situations only to stigmatize them as incompetent and
unworthy of food and shelter. 
The fact of the matter is that most squatters, homeless, dumpster diving kids 
I
know are light years more self sufficient than the rich kid who has had the
bill paid the whole way by daddy warbucks.
--- FMail 1.22
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