To the editor:
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I’ve lived in Chicago all my life, and as it stands today, it’s nearly impossible to walk 100 yards in any populated area of this city without being aggressively hassled, hustled, and shamed to “help the homeless” or “spare some change.” Although I’ve seen my share of the silent “cup shakers” that seem to be Weinberg’s favorite cause, they’re in the minority. And it’s not only the sidewalks of the city. Areas surrounding Whole Foods, ATM machines, Starbucks all bear continuous testimony to the persistence of career beggars highly skilled in the arts of obstruction and subtle intimidation.
Tori Marlan’s contrived attempt to draw a resonating cultural contradiction between the street hustlers and the product-sampling teams was an exercise in naive subjective journalism. Did it dawn on Tori that the samplers were gainfully employed and giving pedestrians a free product that they use, as opposed to people begging for a handout hassling pedestrians for their hard-earned money? Another insight Tori might have pointed out: the Salvation Army bell ringers are licensed and raising funds to serve the social needs of the people who choose to recover and not beg for a living.
Chicago
