Unions
Every day, I pass a lady on Times Square who asks for "A Penny, A Nickel, A Dime, Ladies and Gentlemen, just a Penny, a Nickel, a Dime." She optimistically has a large empty water bottle, of the variety that are turned upside-down atop office water coolers, into which people deposit their paltry sums. The bottle is never even remotely full.I do not know this woman's name, but I do know her. I once gave her my umbrella during a rainstorm, and she recognizes me now as I walk down the street on my way to work. We often share greetings.
The woman works for the United Homeless Organization, a strange but good New York institution. The UHO is basically a union of the homeless and formerly homeless. They provide services for each other, do outreach, distribute goods, and, most especially, educate one another. Where does one go if one is sick? Where is the best place to sleep on a cold night? How can we change New York's vagrancy laws? The UHO meets in parks and buildings to try to provide common answers to these questions.
New York is the home of numerous unorthodox unions. The UHO is one of them; the Freelancers Union (motto: "a strange idea whose time has come") is another. In a city as faceless as this one, people seem to band together whenever possible. And in a city as big as this one, those bands can become quite large (and well-organized) over time.
Why is it that "organized begging" (fundraising, that is to say) is "respectable," while begging on the streets is not? I don't know the answer... but it seems like the UHO has figured out how to do the first instead of the second.
posted by Skay @ 10:48 PM
1 Comments:
My guess is that it's because people who are begging on the streets are perceived as unmotivated, pitiful vagrants, whereas people engaged in "organized begging" (that's an interesting term) are seen as having initiative, in that they're a part of something that's not themselves?
I don't actually believe this, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate. I don't have a low opinion of street beggars; most of them need medical attention more than anything else. Unfortunately, many people pass by them thinking, "get a job you bum," not realizing how hard that is when you suffer from something like schizophrenia (or worse).
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