Crack Heads

We have not had a decent rainfall in Raleigh for a very long time. Finally for the next few days there will be rain. It was very nice driving to work this morning since there were no beggars off the sides of the road on and off ramps on my drive to work. Or should I say crack heads.

There is a difference between a homeless person and a crack head. Homeless people I view as those who had it really rough with a job loss, then losing their home, no family to rely on, and then found themselves in the streets. They use the proper resources to get into shelters and try their best to find programs to get back to work. These are the people I feel bad for and wish I could help.

Crack heads are the ones off the sides of the streets that consider begging for money their job and they use the generous donations from people to buy crack or exchange food and clothing people give them for crack. Crack heads beg on the off ramp on my way to work and they sit by the on ramp on my way home. These people are scary. They cover their faces with their sign so you don’t see their stoned face and their scabs from the crack. This one guy I see in the morning stares at you through your car window. Even worse is I am stopped at a stop light so they are only a few feet away.

Some crack heads can be very entertaining. One guy near the Southpoint mall had the best crack head sign I’ve ever seen. “To stupid to steal. Too ugly to prostitute.” He only had shorts on with his fat belly hanging over them. I wish I had my camera on me because that was priceless. I was impressed he spelled prostitute correctly. Most of these crack heads hold ups signs saying they are a Vietnam Vet. Some of them are too young to be a Vietnam vet so that just pisses me off. One guy I passed a few years ago spit on vehicles as people drove by and did not give him money. The worst is seeing them go to the bathroom on the side of the road… one and two. Sorry buddy – that bush is not covering you all the way.

The biggest puzzler for me was the homeless guy with the ruby red electric wheel chair. How does that happen? Who paid for that and shouldn’t he have a home to go back to with that expensive wheel chair? He was parked at the top of a hill on an off ramp. I prayed he did not go into reverse too far or it would have been a long way down.

Now for those of you not living in a city that are gasping at the stuff I am writing you really have to see this to believe it. When I first moved to Raleigh I felt bad for these people. One morning on my way into work I only had a yogurt with me. I gave it to the guy and he threw it.

Now to the biggest crack head of them all…or at least in this case the biggest drunken pervert…my neighbor down the street. I don’t know all the details but he did some horrible things with underage kids and likes teenage Asian women and he is in his 40’s. He goes from job to job and has his mom pay his mortgage. Yes…drunken pervert is one of those beggars you hear about that has a home in the suburbs and begs for money. He went about 5 miles away from our subdivision and begged off the highway. My friend’s mom and my neighbor caught him. It was not a mistake because they saw his car parked just a few blocks away. I am not sure how long he did it for or if he still does.

Lesson for the day: Don’t enable the beggars! If you really want to make a difference in these people’s lives donate to the shelters and not handouts on the streets.