Dealing With Subway Panhandlers

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To the Editor:

Re “Why Do I Give on the Subway?” (Op-Ed, Dec. 22):

Rick Hamlin’s article reminded me of a conversation at a long-ago dinner party about giving money to the homeless. The majority argued that we should not: That’s what we pay taxes for, and giving was feeding the vice that put those people on the street in the first place. (They would prefer paying more taxes to being accosted on the street.)

A few of us maintained that it wasn’t about money: What their “no” really meant was that they didn’t want to interact with anyone afflicted with that degree of suffering. But even this type of interaction could be good for us because it reminded us of our commonality, while hurrying past panhandlers did the opposite.

This rationale gave offense: Who were we to claim access to their unconscious and their “real motives”? Retrospectively, I agree: Our position was patronizing and offensive. Even so, I still believe it and continue to give.

DYAN ELLIOTT, CHICAGO

To the Editor:

This poignant article reminded me powerfully of the lasting lesson Fred Friendly (a president of CBS News) taught me when I was a graduate student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the early 1980s. It had nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with humility and our shared humanity

As students, we struggled with whether we should give money to the many panhandlers near campus or in the subway. Mr. Friendly told us he always gave, and did so because he didn’t think it was his place to judge.

I live in one of those “velvet suburbs” Rick Hamlin cites, but — in memory of Professor Friendly — I make it a practice to keep a handful of dollar bills readily accessible whenever I’m in the city or likely to encounter people asking for money. I’d rather give something to someone running a street hustle than not give to someone who needs it.

MERRI ROSENBERG, ARDSLEY, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Crowded subway cars already inspire a captive feeling of dread. Do we really want them further clogged with more panhandlers? That is the logical extension of what would happen if everyone followed Rick Hamlin’s example.

Rather than giving to panhandlers on the subway, Mr. Hamlin might better serve the interests of the homeless by donating to charities that directly help them. In fact, it is highly likely that those most in need do not have the wherewithal to even get on a subway.

MARTIN HOFFMAN, NEW YORK

To the Editor:

In his lovely article about why he gives money and/or food to people who beg on the subways, Rick Hamlin says the spiel a subway beggar may give for needing money or food is surely “a fiction,” and he goes on to speculate why, nonetheless, he gives. “To be blessed?” he asks, or to have his “guilt appeased”?

Perhaps. But one may also give to avoid enhancing a part of us that is too ready and eager to judge others. (“You’re just feeding a drug habit …”) It would be a shame if we let what for many of us are often daily and sometimes irritating encounters cut ourselves off from impulses within us that are otherwise generous and kind.

JAY NEUGEBOREN, NEW YORK