Our Transient Friends

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Panhandlers Are Intrusive" [“Postmarks,” Oct. 2]: Robert Tillotson's letter demonstrates the common disconnect between those of us who currently enjoy financial stability and those who do not.
    Yesterday, I stopped by Little City to pick up the latest Chronicle and a half-priced happy hour coffee. Ironically, while reading Mr. Tillotson's rant about panhandlers invading his space, I bumped into one of "these people" in front of Prosperity Bank. After I walked into the back of his wheelchair, he asked, "Hey brother, can you help me out?" I saw his smile and the brick ground beneath his missing right leg and pulled a dollar out of my wallet. We exchanged stories and conversation before shaking hands and going our separate ways. This man was not only the most pleasant person I spoke with all day but also happens to be a fully disabled combat veteran living on $285 a month from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and whatever else he can garner from panhandling.
    As wars, foreclosures, and bankruptcies escalate, so will homelessness and desperation. To equate our poorest citizens with suicidal cult followers of Jim Jones is as irrational as asking a needy woman for money or repeatedly calling the police to harass impoverished people. Our time would be better served calling our elected officials and asking them to support funding for the VA and housing programs rather than for bat-winged bombers and bank bailouts. The countless domestic and foreign policies that exacerbate poverty worldwide should be our focus of criticism, not those who are victimized by them.