Brother, Don't Spare a Dime by Christopher L. Awalt: Article Analysis

Donald Russell
Essay #2
March 30, 2011
F. Berkowitz
Christopher L. Awalt is an author who also volunteers at the Salvation Army and the soup kitchen in Austin Texas. During his volunteer work he has encountered many homeless people and feels that most of them have no aspiration to take responsibility for their lives and overcome their hardships. He feels that because of this they are to blame for their situation and do not deserve help offered to them unless they are willing to work hard. In his article “Brother, Don’t Spare a Dime” Awalt describes two types of homeless people temporarily homeless, and chronologically homeless. Awalt describes the people who are temporarily homeless as responsible citizens who have encountered some bad luck. They will be off the street eventually due to their perseverance and hard work to change their life around. These people are the exception to Awalt’s theory that spending money on the homeless is a waste of time. Awalt describes people who are chronologically homeless as people who choose their lifestyle and would rather beg on the street than get a hard earned pay check. Awalt’s theory is appropriate because each and every person has the right to want to have a job, and a place to live, but in order to attain these things they must be willing to work hard. Nobody can change their lifestyle choices for them. People can only offer them help, and it is the homeless person’s responsibility to take the help offered to them and use it to benefit themselves.
Helping people who do not want to be helped is both a waste of time and money. There is no point giving the homeless money if they are just going to use it to buy substances to abuse. An example of this would be a time where I had seen a homeless man on the subway. He was begging for money and telling everyone around him that all he wanted was the chance to get a job and support himself. I felt sorry for this man and gave him five dollars only to later see him buy a beer with the money. These types of people do not want to change their lives they are content with begging and getting free money to buy drugs and alcohol. They claim they want money for food but all they really want to do is get their fix. Awalt suggests the next time you see a homeless person claiming they will work for food offer them a job, and if they accept tell them they will get paid weekly. Awalt states, “My guess is that you won’t find many takers. The truly homeless won’t stay around past the second question” (2). They know that there will always be some sympathetic people to give them money and they abuse that sympathy. They do not use the money as a head start to reorganizing their lives; they use it to buy cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol.
Hardworking people also pay taxes to supply the homeless with a check from the government. Awalt states, “The sophisticated among them have learned to use the system for what it’s worth and figure that a trip through the welfare line is less trouble than a steady job” (2). These people do whatever they want and live with no responsibility. They beg on the streets for money and then simply wait in line and basically get free money handed to them. Being on the streets doesn’t matter to them because they never have to work for anything. It is not right that the people that go out and work hard and take responsibility for their lives have to take money out of their hard earned check in order for these irresponsible lazy people to get money just thrown at them.
Another waste is supplying these homeless people with rehabilitation centers when most of them are too lazy to use the help given to them to reform their lives. Awalt states, “Whether because of mental illness, alcoholism, poor education, drug addiction, or simple laziness, these homeless are content to remain as they are” (2). It is very hard to get these people to check into rehab and detoxification centers, and once they are there they usually check themselves out and go back to drugs and alcohol. Awalt tells of a personal experience with a man who was an alcoholic and said he wanted to change. Awalt supplied him with toiletries and clothing, and drove him to a detoxification program which was an hour and a half away. He even tried to get this man a job for when he returned. Just six months into this program the homeless man checked himself out and was back on the streets drinking. This example shows that this homeless man was given an opportunity that many do not get, a chance at starting over and changing his life, but instead of trying he chose alcohol. He was provided with free medical care and counseling, and even had Awalt lining jobs up for him, but he instead chose to go back to alcohol and the streets. Nobody failed this man; he failed himself by taking the easy way out.
This essay is not saying that nobody should help homeless people because they don’t deserve it, this would be generalizing. This essay is simply saying that you cannot help people who are not willing to help themselves. Before help is given to them they must be willing to take responsibility for their lives, and want to work hard because turning your life around is never easy. This is seen in the movie “Pursuit of Happiness” starring Will Smith. He played a man who lost his home and became homeless. He had a young son to take care of as well as himself. He would sleep in shelters with his son at night, and when they would fill up they had to sleep in a subway bathroom. During the day his son would go to daycare and he would go to stock broker’s class that supplied him with no pay. He worked extremely hard and exceled in all his classes. Even though he did not receive any immediate money he knew that it was what he needed to do in order to produce a better life for him and his son. At the end of the movie he was the only one in his class to become a stock broker; this gave him a source of income and got him and his son off the streets. When things got hard he did not give up and this is what landed him a job. He was a very smart man but his mind would have gotten him nowhere if he did not persevere over all the obstacles life threw at him. He immediately began searching for ways to make money and did not take any time to pity himself. He didn’t give himself a chance to give up he was constantly working and fighting to make it through his struggle. He was not only thinking of himself but he also had to keep his son in mind. It is easier to give up on yourself than it is to give up on your children. He fought for his son to have a good life and that was his motivation. This man was someone who did not take the easy way out of his situation, but instead worked hard and never gave up. Not only was this movie inspirational but it was based on a true story. This shows that anything is possible and if you have the motivation and willingness you can accomplish anything life throws at you.
There are no real solutions to this problem with the homeless. There is nothing anybody can do for them until they feel a need to change their lifestyle. People cannot just stop giving welfare checks and volunteering in rehabilitation centers because there are people who do want to change their lives, and having these availabilities really help them put their life together. Awalt states, “Education, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, treatment for the mentally ill and job training programs are all worthwhile projects, but without requiring some effort and accountability on the part of the homeless for whom these programs are implemented, all these efforts do is break the taxpayer. Unless the homeless are willing to help themselves, there is nothing anyone else can do” (3). These things all help the people Awalt describes as temporarily homeless get their lives on track. Until a solution is thought of for the chronically homeless, police will just have to regulate the levels of violence they bring, and the government will have to try to figure out a policy that requires them to rely on themselves, and take responsibility for their own lives.