Marginal

I am often on the trains of NYC, and as such, am witness to many who are deemed marginal. I ride the train after paying my fare as a means of transport to my home, and not to hear sob stories. But often, I am forced to see and hear the stories of those who beg for a living, telling their stories of ineptitude. They speak of tragedies that have left them bereft, of employment and of hope. They speak often of hoplessness, and the need for those of us, who are their unwilling audience, to give them money because of their storytelling. The stories, upon dissecting, are many times unbelievable. I have seen one woman who has been pregnant for about ten years, continually, and uses this condition to garner sympathy so that commuters will open their pockets and wallets. I believe she just has a fat stomache. There is a couple who had a child burn in a fire and need money to bury their child. They have been telling this same story for ten years on the #4 train line of NYC. All of those that I have mentioned and the vast majority of those that I witness begging are obvioulsy addicted to drink and/or drugs.

I find these situations that are forced upon me as outrageous. Often during my commute it is the first time that I am able to sit still for 45 minutes. I try to use the time to plan. So I think and ponder what I must do. I think of the most mundane to the most important decisions of my life on these train rides. Many of these ponderings involve my thinking of how I am going to budget my money. My money is often too short to cover my budget, and thus, to have someone get on a car of a train I am occupying and loudly tell of their financial woes so that I and others on the car will give them money is preposterous to me.

NYC Transit has done studies on their ridership, and a good percentage are poor folk who can barely afford to pay for their own upkeep, let alone give money to person who are highly suspect, upon receipt of such money, to buy drink or drug with said funds. Times are hard for everyone and are made harder by those taking an inappropriate opportunity to jump in the faces of those on a train ride to beg for money when the pockets of those from whom they are begging are as empty as the beggars. The hard working people of NYC who ride transit are not on a train for a free ride (figuratively and literally) like the beggars. They are coming and going to jobs and are not looking for hand-outs. Beggars make harder an often already arduous commute with their stories of ineptitude.