My dad had a particular attitude to beggars. Not peculiar in anyway, just particular. And charity. He’s a stubborn man, who doesn’t care much for reason. He had his opinions and he’s sticking to them. Sticks to them.
When it comes to beggars he refuses to give them any money. He’ll always give buskers money, to anyone on the street with an instrument, no matter how crap they may or may not be playing it. even if it’s a recorder, he’ll give him some change.
Why? Because buskers are earning their money.
And okay, it’s a fair point, some buskers are very talented, and that young boy who won Britain’s Got Talent, performed on the street to earn money to go to dance classes. I’m not going to argue with him on that point. my main issue with this, is the fact that he won’t give beggars or the homeless (from here on referred to the PC term - the domestically challenged) money because they want money for food/alcohol/drugs for doing nothing but siting on the streets.
This is from an alcoholic on incapacity benefits.
My dad is also a hypocrite.
He won’t give money to charity either, because he doesn’t believe in the work they do. He used to volunteer for Scope, back when it was still the Spastic Society. He still has a soft spot for them based on the fact he used to volunteer in one of their shops.
He doesn’t trust charities, so he won’t donate, and only gives money to the Salvation Army. My dad is not religious in any way, despite being an alter boy as a kid, and neither my sister nor I are christened (my own beliefs aside). He will give money to the Salvation Army though, because they are Christians, collecting for the poor and hungry on behalf of God.
He is a hypocrite of contradictions.
My own attitude to charity and domestically challenged comes from my dad, but not because of his own beliefs about charity, but because of his attitude towards giving money to and buying things for my sister and I.
One of my dad’s catch phrases (which makes him sound like a sketch show but without the humour) when I was growing up was “If I’ve got it, you can have it.” The it in question being money. My dad always had money, the governments, and we could have whatever we wanted. Which makes me sound like a brat, but I wasn’t, I didn’t actually want much, my mum had no money, and during term time we have nothing, so it balanced out nicely.
I’m not money obsessed.
However, my dad’s “If I’ve got it, you can have it”, attitude stayed with me and today I follow a similar philosophy today. If I have some change in my pocket I’ll give it away. If someone comes up to me and spins a story about how they need forty pence for the bus, or a quid for a sandwich, I’ll give what I have. It’s only money. What they actually spend it on is up to them, whether it;’s a wrap (of drugs) or a wrap (with chicken in). I don’t care, none of my business.
I would never give away too much, even I have limits. Five pounds maybe, that’s a lot of money to me. I may have more money than someone who is domestically challenged, I do need it so I can pay for my domicile. Pay for my own drugs and sandwiches.
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