Some people just need to get a job

He came running up to me in the parking asking for money. And when I turned around, I noticed this was no homeless guy. He was young, looked healthy and quite able to seek gainful employment.

When I was growing up, we didn’t get an allowance. There was no automatic amount of money handed to us by our parents every Friday. If we wanted some extra pocket money, we worked for it.

So at age 12 I began a newspaper route. I delivered over 50 papers every day, seven days a week, year-round. I made my collections, paid my manager and the rest was mine.

When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I joined my buddies at a local restaurant where I washed dishes, a hot and miserable job. But I was proud when I got my first big-boy paycheck. I’ve worked continuously since then. I paid my way through college by working three jobs on campus to avoid student loans.

I'm not trying to boast. Work is what I was taught. It's what we do. So I can't help but be short when I’m approached by panhandlers as I walk through a parking lot at a grocery store.

I understand there are folks with some real issues, either financially or physically or both. Maybe I’m naïve when I think there are organizations around here that are available to help these people. So I honestly don’t know why they would resort to a strategy of begging on the street for change.

Of course, my cynical side questions their motives and I often believe they’re collecting for booze or drugs. And that cynicism was supported the other day when I was approached by that young man. He literally ran up to me so there was no physical disability. He was younger than my sons and he looked completely normal and healthy. He was clean-cut with a backpack and looked like a college student. And he asked me for a buck.

I looked at him in dismay. I asked if he was kidding. I began to tell him there are help wanted signs all up and down the street with fast food joints offering 15 bucks an hour. But he didn’t want to hear it. He just turned and hurried away.

There are many people out there who have had severe issues in their lives due to abuse, substance problems, bad luck and mental health problems. And I truly feel for them. But this kid was not one of them. And I wasn’t going to give him a nickel. He looked fully capable of getting a job washing dishes, just like I did.

I believe in compassion. And I was taught to help others in need. And I hope that I do enough. But I’m going to do it my way and make sure anything I offer is used responsibly and not on booze or dope. That’s why I'm not giving money to someone in a parking lot.

Ray Kisonas is the regional editor of The Monroe News and The Daily Telegram. You can reach him at rayk@monroenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Ray Kisonas: Some people just need to get a job