Whether you’re in a hurry or relaxed. Beggars at the train station, illegal prostitutes on the Promenade des Anglais, Romanians at the Arena… Those, very French, who play guitar on Avenue Jean Médecin. Those women who ask you for charity near the ATMs? Those, particularly annoying, who want to talk to you on a bus. Just as you’ve barely woken up. But what do they all have, harassing you, bothering you with their morning problems?
You’re right. Just barely in a good mood to talk to your companion (husband, partner, dog, cat, bird, rat, rabbit, hamster). What do they have to disturb your world? A world governed by schedules, obligations, duties to submit, shopping to do, files to close? What do they have to call on you?
That toothless old man, that wretched woman with her baby in her arms, filthy feet, that server at the downtown train station, whipped back? What do they want? A little compassion? A little sharing? A little of this and that.
You immediately say to yourself. “All freeloaders. All welfare recipients. While I work, I pay my taxes, I slog away all day, me!” While them…
They constantly ask you for something. A cigarette, change, a restaurant voucher, a little attention… While you struggle to pay for others… This is really becoming too much now!
You form a very particular image of these “types of people”. Do you even know who they are? Have you tried questioning them? “No time, I have my day to manage,” you answer tersely “And besides, let them find work!”
In the lot, there are certainly some bad apples. But there are the others. Those who have no choice but to walk in the herd specially created for them. To keep them in assistance and ignorance.
I accuse no government, no provision, no amendment. In the meantime, the elderly end up looking foolish going to see Catholic Relief, when they’ve worked their whole lives. The young, meanwhile, find themselves speechless not finding employment when they’ve studied for so long. Prostitutes – both women and men – feel quite troubled following a guy, to say the least a pimp, who promised them the world. They find only hardship and misery.
Look at them. Admire their courage. Weep for their distress. And, for God’s sake, do something!
