[sopas ej]

I help out when I can. Which has become less and less over the years because like many of you, I often don't have cash on me.

Many years ago, I used to be leery of panhandlers/homeless. My mom would often give panhandlers money; I figure it's the Catholic in her. And anyway, in southeast Asia (us being Filipino), it seems many people give money to panhandlers; I think it's the communal nature of those cultures. But myself having grown up in Protestant culture America, I used to get on my mom's case for giving panhandlers money. And then I guess finally, my mom had had it, hehe. I told her "Why did you give that bum five bucks???" My mom looked at me and said "I'd like to think that after I'm gone, if you ever ended up on the street and had to resort to begging for money, someone would be nice enough to give you five bucks." And from then on, I never said anything about her giving money to panhandlers.

I will kind of gauge if I feel a person is really needy, because back in the 90s, I've encountered a number of times where different people, often well-dressed or dressed like they just came from the office, will each give the same sob story of having locked themselves out of their car and only needing a few more bucks to pay the Triple A guy or whatever. And then within the next few days, I'll see the same person, coming up to me like they've never seen me before, and then giving the exact same sob story. It's like, "Uh, didn't you tell me the same story on Monday?" I've actually told that to one person, and they immediately started cursing and walking away.

Also, if the person doesn't seem safe, or like they're ready to rob you or something, I just say "sorry, no" and keep walking.