The courts have found a right, somewhere in the law, to beg on the streets. Which is why drivers around McCain Mall in North Little Rock have to dodge panhandlers carrying signs. You can find beggars on the south side of the river, too, especially at several on-ramps to the interstate downtown. In this economy, with 3.5 percent unemployment, it's hard not to think to oneself: Surely these folks don't have to do this.
Not long ago, at a cute night gathering at Laman Library, we were accosted trying to get into our vehicle. These folks can be aggressive, which is why lawmakers tried to do something about them. Ask us about the time when one person followed us into a restaurant begging for a handout.
Still, we have our souls to think about. We might use the opportunity to talk to the kids about dangers that strangers may pose, but we're not going to roll down the window and start shouting insults, either.
Twitter is the social media version of rolling down the window and shouting insults.
The other day, state Rep. Stephen Meeks (R-Greenbrier) found himself getting some angry responses after comments he made about being poor and homeless in America. Even Captain Sulu joined in. When George Takei joins the crowd, you know you're in trouble.
Here's what Rep. Meeks tweeted:
"Being poor in America is a personal choice, unless there are mitigating circumstances. A homeless man can go to school, get a job driving a truck making $70k per year and in 20 years become a millionaire. In America you can work hard and change your future--if you choose."
We'll give Stephen Meeks the benefit of the doubt since he earns at least a portion of his income as a Papa John's pizza delivery driver. He's a working man. And we'd guess the sentiment he was trying to express was somewhere along the lines of "America is the land of opportunity," and "folks who beg for money when they could be working can be frustrating for the rest of us."
That's not how this tweet came across, though. Words and tone always matter if you're an elected official, and not only when you're an elected official.
There are many reasons people become poor or homeless, far too many to be covered by the words "mitigating circumstances." A person can go bankrupt paying for cancer treatments. A person could lose a job and lose a home. Another man may have mental illness and no one to take care of him. Life happens, and sometimes it's solitary, nasty, brutish and short. This is where the problem of tone comes in. Mr. Meeks' tweet seemed to suggest homeless people are responsible for their own plights, and the harsh reality is that far too many are victims of circumstance.
Another problem is much more simple: math. Sure, if a person earned $70,000 every year, he'd be a millionaire after 20 years. There's just the minor detail of expenses. First, far too much of that $70,000 is gonna go to Uncle Sam (a problem We the People need to fix). Then there are things like rent, food, utilities, a car payment, phone bill, medical costs that pop up, child care, insurance . . . that is, life.
The last sentence of his tweet was fine--and true. In America, you can work hard and change your future. Most of the time. This is a free country with lots of opportunity for life-changing economics. Rep. Meeks probably would have been better off tweeting just that. Or not tweeting at all, which would be our recommendation to everybody else.
For proof, see the reaction to his comments. You'd have thunk he came out against pecan pie and motherhood. Some folks were calling for him to leave his job in the Arkansas legislature.
You see? The less you twit, the better. Even the innocuous stuff could be used against you. Especially for those predisposed to rending their garments every time they read something that annoys them. Which is too many people these days, as one Arkansas lawmaker found out.
Editorial on 11/21/2018