Taxi Fare 1

Last night I had to confront a common issue when hanging out with the homeless. A woman needed some money for taxi fare to make it to the bus station for a 5:50 am departure. She was staying the night off Geyer Springs and needed to be at the bus station in North Little Rock (probably 8-10 miles). The public transportation does not run that early. She showed me the bus ticket that was dated that day. She stated that she missed the bus this morning but could use the ticket tomorrow. Taxi fare would run $10-15. She wanted to go to El Dorado where her 22-year-old son lives.

What did I do? What would you do?

This encounter raises a whole bunch of issues, a discussion of which could occupy hours of small church group meetings (without ever having to do anything). The issues cut across social, political, and theological grounds. I have spent years having these kinds of debates in my mind and in small groups, which were all theoretical, of course.

Last night was not theoretical. I stood face to face with this woman who had waited in a line of about 75 homeless and poor to get a free meal. She had socks on, but no shoes (what the heck?!). She looked sad. There were no obvious signs of substance abuse or mental illness, though these things are not easy to identify in brief encounters. The story was not unlike many others I have heard over the years (Does this mean that it was just that, a story, or does it reflect the fact that the need for transportation is a basic one for the poor?). There was some legitimacy to parts of the story (the ticket) and other parts were not able to be verified in that short time.

Take your pick of issues.

Someone said that we should have a "policy" down there to not give out money. It's a simple policy. It is generally a good one. With this policy, you don't have to think, pray, use wisdom, or pay attention to your spirit. So, under this policy, we would look the woman in the eye and say, "I can't give you any money." And she goes away, with nothing, no closer to either getting her taxi fare or, if she were telling a false a story, getting whatever she really needed. God knows that they need a lot. She could have used a pair of shoes.

I could accept the no money rule as a general policy, but not a specific one. There may be cases where giving money is the right thing to do (we already know that there are many cases where it may not be the right thing to do). So, I say follow the policy, except when you don't, which really means that the policy is not of much help in the situation I had to face last night.

More on this later.