Posted by
AudiR10TDI on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:00:11 AM
December 12, 2006 -- Yesterday when I got off the subway at the downtown Financial District complex where I work, I was greeted by a row of shouting people jangling collection boxes -- for the NINTH TIME in two weeks. This time it was people collecting for Crimestoppers, a tip line that offers rewards to people who turn in criminals. I informed the person to whom I gave my collection that she was the ninth collector in two weeks and she looked startled and said "NINE?" in disbelief.
Yes, ma'am, nine times, almost every day in the past two weeks, we who are heading to our offices for the day have been greeted by shouting, can-rattling people past whom we must walk to get to the work that runs the engine of the world. One or two are charities I have never heard of before -- a group who wanted to have a Christmas party for homeless people at a particular shelter, for example -- but most were well known to us.
Yes, standing in the subway station where people from the Financial District head to work will probably be a better opportunity than standing in a mall. However, when you face it every day you start responding the same way you respond to people begging in the streets; you quicken your step (and sidestep the two beggars holding the door open at the entrance to the complex, too) and quickly leave them behind.
I am a person who believes very much in private charity and I am happy to contribute in kind to those who ask me politely and don't urge me to contact the government for "funding" for their particular cause. I don't want to face every morning a barrage of yelling beggars. My sister remarked the other day that it's like the opening scene in "Murder on the Orient Express" where people headed to the train are forced to run a gauntlet of gabbling salesmen and beggars and all of them walk through with the same look on their faces as you'll see at the subway station every morning.
We're going to work, folks. We're doing our part (and most of us are harrassed and pressed at the office on a regular basis by people from your organizations as well as those who want us to give up a day's pay to fight AIDS in Africa and those who send threatening solicitations through the mail in support of the food bank) and all we want is for you to shut up and go away.
It's not that your cause is unjust (although some of them are) but that there are too darned many of you.
So if you're finding the Financial District a poor prospecting ground, that could be one reason why.
Come back after Christmas and don't shout at us. Believe me, you'll do much better.