Something rather odd happened to me today. Now I’m sure some of you are thinking that I smiled, and you’d be wrong. However I do smile all the time…usually when someone falls down or a driver on a cell phone gets their minivan torn in half by an 18 wheeler…but I digress…
I was in Harvard Square tonight and was trying to decide where to eat. I happen to love Felipe’s Taqueria…if you haven’t been, it’s a pretty authentic Mexican restaurant that takes cash only, but is cheap and very tasty (if anyone comments on this saying that my use of the word “Mexican” is biased I am going to alert the authorities that you have child pornography on your computer).
Anyways…I was walking down the street about a block away, and this guy comes up to me and asks me for a dollar so that him and his sister can split a burrito. Now to be honest, this guy did not look like he needed a dollar. He could clearly afford the brand new skateboard he was riding, the designer clothes he had on, and the razor he used to shape the god awful beard he had on his face that resembled something fire marshall bill might sport. I politely lied through my teeth and said I only had a credit card, even though I had exactly one dollar in cash on me.
We went our separate ways and I headed off to the ATM to get some money out for Felipe’s. As I walked back to the restaurant, I look in the window and there’s the guy who asked me for the dollar, with his sister, and in line to get a burrito.
At this point, I am faced with a decision: Either find a new restaurant, or walk inside and get a burrito right in front of the guy I just lied to about not having money for him to eat.
I am now being barred from a restaurant because I refused to be charitable. I wanted a burrito, but couldn’t get one because the asshole who probably did not need my money in the first place has gotten it from some other sucker, and beat me to it. I understand this is not his fault, but it made me chuckle heartily…
The point of this heartwarmer of a story is this: I am sick and tired of being faced with seemingly forced charity all the time. Not that I don’t like charity…on the contrary I think it is a very important thing to do and is good for the soul. It feels good to help people. But if I am not feeling charitable at any given time…I don’t want to be made to feel or look like a dick because I don’t want to give a dollar to the breast cancer fund today. I don’t like paying for my groceries at Stop and Shop and have the girl at the register ask me if I want to donate money to the starving children foundation while there is a line of people staring and waiting for my answer. If I say no, I instantaneously become a bag of shit to those 4 strangers that I will know for all of 2 minutes. I understand that this shouldn’t bother me, and I also understand that if I had my way, there would be a giant neon sign right above the register that flashed and made booing sounds at every person that turned down the donation option to let everyone in the store know that you don’t want children to eat. I know this may sound contradictory, but I would take a semester off from school to free up some time if they had one of those…
In any case…I do like helping those in need…but a guy who wants a dollar for a burrito who is wearing a Sean John sweatshirt doesn’t exude the “need” characteristic to me. Let me decide where my charity dollars go…and don’t make me feel like a dick because I spent my money on the “Cure ALS” jar as opposed to the “Fix a Child’s Cleft Pallet” fund. In the end, at least I’m helping someone…
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