Is San Francisco really as compassionate as they say they are?
That's the question at hand along with a few other questions like how much out their way do they go beyond the giving Holiday's to people in need? Are people only in need during the fall months (October - December)? I can answer that and so can you. If you take the time to walk down Market Street, which is one of the most popular and well-traveled streets here, in the city after dark and during the day as well you will discover people in need and a great many other well traveled or not so well traveled streets.
If you go into these shelters and drop in centers you will discover people in need, if you go into these residential hotels you will discover people in need, if you visit the main library you will see people in need and if you take the time to visit just a few of the agencies here in the city you will discover people in need the point is there are a great many people in need of different ways, just so happens that I'm referring to food right now. As I am currently writing this article my family and I are in need of both food and a place to live. I don't just go around interviewing other people, I live the articles that I write.
After being in a meeting and hearing one of my fellow colleagues quote that if you went into a store that you frequent on a regular basis and had no money you couldn't even get a loaf of bread to feed yourself or your family? That was the question she asked and the response to her question was that she didn't think so.
I thought about what she said and to some degree I disagreed with her not because I didn't want to believe her but because of what I had experienced. There are some compassionate people and businesses here. Nonetheless it piqued my curiosity and I decided I would find out for myself just who was compassionate enough so I went out one day going to the market for two reasons, one to buy drink and to find out if they would give to a family or person in need.
Before I got there I went into an eatery and asked the employee the question...if I came into your establishment and told you I didn't have any money but my family is hungry would you give us a meal?
She looked at me with such sorrow in her eyes and told me that if she was the manager she would, but unfortunately she wasn't at liberty to make that call. She told me I would have to return the next day to speak with the manager with that I thanked her for her time and exited the fast food restaurant that would mean that if me and my family were destitute at the time we would based on her answer have gone hungry that night and the question then becomes how many in a days time can say they were turned away because of policies?!
I left and continued on my way to the store. I went in and grabbed a shopping cart and walked over to the manager. The look he gave told me that he wasn't going to make me happy and he proved his expression, though he was professional he was rude and short with me while I was talking to him a little boy walked up as though I wasn't standing there and he proceeded to help him like I was a nobody. I waited until he finished and tried to continue my research but before I could finish my statement he cut me off twice and finally told me to call the corporate office, when I asked for the number he quoted it to me instead of writing it down, I think it was 1-877-SAFEWAY. If there had been another store within walking distance I would have left but I stayed. I think stores like that feel as though they can treat you any kind of way when they're the biggest chain in the city. Maybe it was just that one but it was a total turn off to me and it proved that both Mari and myself are right.
I have been in an eatery when I had nothing to feed my family and talked with the manager and was given food to feed my family but never in a store. I've stayed in a couple of hotels that let me and my family in on a promise to pay once I got money, I have met strangers who have been nice enough to put me and my family up, I've met people who have been kind enough to feed us when we had nothing, so there are some but clearly not enough.
I would like to see many more show compassion in this city, poor people will help each other on a daily basis before rich people would help the poor at anytime other than Thanksgiving and Christmas. I shudder to think that when I have money you're smiling in my face but the minute I have nothing you look at me and treat me as if I carried an odor or something. The inhabitants of San Francisco’s level of compassion on a daily basis have got to change.
I don't think God allowed you to be rich, well off or wealthy just so you would harbor it or be a show off of what you have accumulated off the backs of the others or have inherited, He gave it to you so you'd have a better life and so you would share with others.