Not every panhandler is an addict

Your recent story about Aberdeen discouraging money donations to panhandlers made sense. Until I read that it usually goes toward drugs or alcohol. Undoubtedly, some does. But there are other reasons for panhandling. We have the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the unemployed and those who are just plain poor. Jesus said, “For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.” (Mark 14:7)

I could write a whole dissertation especially, on how our mentally ill suffer because Washington state is No. 48 in the nation in providing adequate care, but that’s another story. Just realize that not everyone holding a sign is going to run around the block and shoot up meth. Many, many reasons put the disadvantaged on our corners.