Yesterday everyone’s favorite conservative bully,
Katherine Kersten set her sights on Minneapolis’ panhandlers. She preemptively blamed them for the downfall of downtown Minneapolis. She cited extreme examples of rude and aggressive behavior and drew the conclusion that all beggars need to be rounded up by an already over-worked police force. “With the right tools and the political will, a city can banish livability crimes quickly.”
Then, today, her favorite ideological sparing parter,
Nick Coleman gave his take. Coleman seemed a little fired-up by Ms. Kersten’s collumn. He assutely pointed out that there are, in fact, bigger fish to fry. The Minneapolis Police department does not need to be chasing panhandlers around. He also tried (tried being the key word) to draw begging parallels with the stadium tax or “tip jars” on blogs.
Unfortunately, no amount of hand-wringing will remove panhandlers from our lives. There have always been poor, and there will always be poor among us. There were beggars in Biblical times, in Acient Eygpt, and even in the “good old days.”
Sometimes it is their own fault. Sometimes people are lazy, and/or sometimes they made very poor choices. And yes, sometimes it is a mater of cemical dependency.
But while society is quick to forgive many sins of the rich and the famous if they appoligize and go to rehab; those who cannot afford a trip to Hazelden or Betty Ford are condemend for their short-commings. I know that just like the less fortunate among us, there will always be doulbe standards for the rich and the poor.
It will be interesting to see what the
Minneapolis City Council ends up doing on this issue.
Other thoughts:
+ Ambular and I were lucky enough to to dine at Manny’s Steakhouse on Tuesday. It was terrific. Crabcakes, Tomato and Mozarella salad, Baseball Steaks filled with garlic butter, and Tiramisu the size of a basketball for dessert. MMMmmm good. I’m just glad Ambular’s boss was picking up the tab.
+ I have to give Bush credit for trying to find a realistic solution to the immigration problem. Yet, his Republican “allies” appear willing to block him every step of the way.
+ Too much time caddying and playing golf have left me little time or energy to blog. Bear with me, The MN Life will once again rise from the ashes…
Labels: Politics
I’ve always been fascinated by “idea people.” Like those who came up with Swiffer dusters, disposable razors, or Jamba Juice. These simple ideas have produced millions in profits after they were combined with a good measure of marketing know-how and production capability. 
