Maybe I was just ignorant to it, and maybe when you're younger the world is all sunshine and rainbows, but I don't remember so many bad things happening. Sure, I remember September 11th, but that was the worst and only thing I ever remember seeing on the news before high school. It's really possible that I was well shielded from the horrors of the world, but I can say from the last 10 years or so, things have been a real, well, a real show for lack of a more eloquent descriptive. Things have been so bad with shootings and terrorists and bombings and really everything that can go bad that has. And to a lesser, but still important degree, I don't remember ever seeing so many homeless.

I see them all the time along all the very busy roads, perfectly positioned at those places that have really really long lights where you have to acknowledge them and feel bad or really try hard to pretend you're oblivious to the world. I do try to give money when I can, but we also live in a time where I'm afraid to carry too much hard cash on my person. And really there's another, and bigger problem I have with the whole homeless situation. How do you know if they're really homeless?

I'm definitely not trying to discredit those who have been really down on their luck and have lost everything because we all know that there are plenty people of all ages who have hit that bottom. The trouble is all these other people who make it impossible to inherently trust the honesty of an actual homeless person. I live in New Hampshire which really isn't a poor or rich place. It's pretty much country when compared to the rest of the U.S. but we have a decent sized city in Manchester that has some great to awful areas. I now live in one of the better areas (didn't always, but that's another story) and constantly I am berated by the same people over and over again asking for cash cause things are tough. They do so as I walk by stores with "Now Hiring" signs and I and my friends and family see them all the time. Same things, different day.

Things aren't getting better seemingly and I've heard about and experienced people trying to swindle. They will pretend to be homeless and stand there with a sign talking about having to feed kids wearing a nice and warm jacket and just reel in the easy money from sympathetic passerbys. Again, I'm not saying that a homeless person can't have nice possessions or something left over from when times were easier, but everyone is trying to con everyone these days, and it makes anyone, even those with the purest of hearts question the notion and not want to help someone for fear of being made a fool of.

Honestly, it makes us all worse people. I can't just give my money away, being afraid someone is going to be selfish when I can pay bills or put it towards things to make my own life easier. I have no problem helping someone in need, but you can't know now. There's no way to tell. And I just can't bring myself to give away free money to those who might not deserve it. And everybody suffers.