Response to a Text: Beggars of Britain
Dear Mr. Parsons,
I am writing in response to the article “Beggars of Britain” published on Arena, September/October 1991. Living in Kenya – a third-world country – I deal with the same situation on a daily basis, and, to be honest, I was shocked and appalled by your article. I found your arguments way too extreme and completely partial, besides, your intolerant tone resembles fascism at times . There are a few reasonable points in your text, but the amount of absurdly offensive statements practically cancels them out. Also, I found the use of humour excessive and offensive.
It is understandable that being faced with such an excessive situation would make you feel increasingly uneasy, and I must admit that it is a sad truth that after a while these situations “harden your heart, put callouses on your soul...make every cry for help seem like junk mail”. However, this is no justification for your shockingly intolerant and obnoxious argument. Clearly, you let your emotions interfere with your logic. Fair enough, personally, you have lost your tolerance for beggars, but You must consider that a portion of your readers is bound to be influenced by your writing, and to publish an article in a widely read publication which sounds more like a frenzied person is not only distasteful, but irresponsible. If most people thought like you do, we would run into serious social problems. Evidently you do not consider all cases, only your points of view; you make broad generalizations (and for the most part incorrect ones) simply to strengthen your arguments. You cannot possibly seriously believe that all beggars in Britain are lazy, no-good leeches who simply want to make easy money. I am fully aware, there are people like that, and not few, but I'm certain that there's a vast amount who had no choice in the matter, and had to resort to begging for a simple question of survival. You must understand that begging brings about a vicious circle – when a person has no chance of getting a job, begging seems like the only option, and once a person has lived on the streets for a while it becomes increasingly difficult for them to return to productive society. I'll admit that many of them simply get comfortable in their easy lives, but the matter isn't quite as simple as that.