What is your reaction to this political advertisement I got in the mail?

Man. I would steer clear of this guy. He’s a fear monger. He’s following in Trump’s footsteps by spreading fake news. In fact, I’d send him an email telling him how tasteless and misleading you found that ad to be. I’d put it on his Facebook page. If I had the money, I’d take out an ad in the local paper.
I read something once that often times people become successful by creating non-existent “threats,” then gain support by promising to save you from those “threats.”

tasteless. That’s the word I was looking for!

I like your idea. I’ll see if he has a Facebook page.

Edit: he does not appear to have a facebook page, but he does have his own website with contact information.

I’m right behind you! Send a link!

His email is steve@fitzforthefuture.com and his website is fitzforthefuture.com.

Yuck. Let’s shit on society’s most unfortunate, why don’t we.

@Mariah it’s an American pastime.

I don’t think anyone should be in the median doing anything on a regular basis. It is distracting for drivers and dangerous for those hanging out on the medians.

Side bar: My friends in New Orleans call the median the “neutral ground.” I have laughed about that for many years. There is a good historical reason but it is still funny to hear.

You have a point @MollyMcGuire, but what was THEIR point in making such snarky, hateful claims about them that they don’t even know are true?

There are those among us who would prefer not being reminded that there are struggling folks in their neighborhood. It isn’t the fact that the panhandlers are begging so much as “I’m forced to see them”. The unspoken argument goes “Don’t THOSE people have any shame?” How can they prefer the shame of public begging to simply hiding their suffering from the rest of us.

@MollyMcGuire I agree with you that the median should not be used as a hang-out spot.

@stanleybmanly those are my feelings exactly.

Out here, there is a growing trend of beggars hanging out at the exits from the drive through windows at fast food restaurants, the exit doors from supermarkets, and any establishment likely to have customers leaving with newly acquired pocket change.

Calling panhandlers “scammers” is an extension of an urban myth about beggars that is so ingrained that a Sherlock Holmes story was written about it.

But the truth is far from attractive:

In San Francisco’s Union Square, the typical panhandler is a disabled middle-aged single male who is a racial minority and makes less than $25 per day despite panhandling seven days a week for more than five years. Though Stossel was insistent that panhandlers just use the money for beer and pot, the majority of those surveyed did not. In fact, 94 percent used the meager funds they raised for food.

@Dutchess_III They most likely think the panhandler distracts from the attractiveness of the area. I don’t disagree. But, that needn’t come into play here. No one should be in the median. There are plenty of places to beg that is safe for the beg
gar. It’s become an occupation for some. I pretty much ignore all of them now.

I am also curious as to how someone can be simultaneously a “drifter” and not homeless. Isn’t a drifter homeless by definition?

@cinnamonk No. Drifter doesn’t even mean poor or broke. Anyone who drifts from place to place s a drifter. He may stay in Holiday Inns each night or rent funished apts as he travels.

People who vilify the poor are down there with bullies and racists on my scale of people I think should be removed from society and reeducated.

In Edmonton an aggressive pan handler makes $400 per day and lives in a penthouse suite next to the city hall downtown. Sorry for the writing standards in the previous quip. LURVE. Lurve for the poor.

@RedDeerGuy1 That Edmonton Police Inspector passed on unsubstantiated gossip. Why didn’t he call him out by name?

@zenvelo It was on the local tv news 20 years ago. They reported that a beggar was making over $100,000 a year panhandling. At $20 a pop twenty times a day (with weekends off ). I don’t know the panhandlers name. I met the man in front of the main library. he was 6’7” 250 lbs and indigenous status. I told him my life story and he gave me $20.

@RedDeerGuy1 It was in the news because a police inspector said it at a hearing on a panhandling law.

It’s almost like click bait but in the form of a letter. They print big text, hateful words. All to get people’s attention. People probably believe things sent through mail than they do over things they see online. I think it’s terrible he used someone else’s picture also. S/he might have been just picking up the signs. Didn’t look homeless to me
also, hello fellow Wisconsinite

@zenvelo O.K. thanks I didn’t think that anyone remembered the story.

I really want to know where this $40,000—$80,000 figure comes from but I can’t find any “studies” that support this claim.

FRICK THE POOR! We give them free fluoride in their water; what the hell else do they want? If they are going to hang out on useless little plots of ground, they should plant some damn seeds and grow their own fricken’ food. They are great at dumpster diving. They could build a still and make their own booze.
Okay, really, the ad sounds obtuse, and the guy should be slapped.

He’s a moron and wouldn’t get my vote. He claims they aren’t homeless and then calls them ‘drifters’. I don’t want any politician to see a problem and try to leverage that problem in this way. I want a politician who sees a problem and tries to find an actual solution for it. ‘Moving them along’ is not a solution to the problem.

Funny, when you search for “panhandlers earn $80,000 a year” one of the top results you get is the article @zenvelo excerpted from.

This guy must live in some sort of alternative reality.

Just wanted to report the results of yesterday’s election for all curious:

Mo Cheeks (Incumbent): 84%
Steve: 16%

link