Kate O'Connor introduced the panhandling issue by saying we were not to discuss "spin-offs," and we were to be" compassionate". I should have asked her to define spin-offs and compassion as I, as a literalist, felt shutdown. For example, the crazy college children and their crazy-makers -university professors and administrators- claim that any views different from theirs are "violence." What then does "compassionate" mean here in Brattleboro?
The chief of police suggested a team consisting of a cop and a social worker approach each beggar and try to find out why she is begging. Then the team will suggest options to panhandling to get what she wants. This is not to be intimidation, and I hope it remains that way. I see the main problems of beggars as addiction, poverty, and mental/emotional problems and believe in re-opening the state mental hospitals which were ostensibly closed because of hysteria that they were "warehouses of people." I wonder if their closings were a scheme of the Republicans to have the government spend less money so taxes could go down and government could get smaller. Forget the mentally ill and the addicted!
Groundworks made a survey of eight beggars out of eleven contacted and found they were only making twenty dollars a day. Kate has promised future discussions about panhandling.
Peter Nickerson 352-359-0850
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