By JorgeFurioso / San Diego Reader / December 3, 2010
I remember the first time I saw one of those, “Welcome to San Diego, Please Don’t feed our Bums” stickers. I worked in a store on Newport Ave. Someone had put one up in our front window, so it was the first thing you saw as you walked in. I remember being mildly annoyed by it, and thinking that some customers would probably feel the same. But, I decided to ignore it.
The following day I left to go camping in Big Sur for a week. I was at a truck stop somewhere in central California waiting in line to pay for some gas, when I looked up at the television they had on for customers. I was astonished to see that the Headline News Network was doing a story about that very sticker, using the one in the front of our store as an example.
I could not believe my eyes when they quickly cut to an interview of one our employees. The employee proceeded to defend the sticker by saying that most of the homeless people around here were rich kids that think its cool to be homeless. He went on to say, that most of them even have cell phones and credit cards. I could not believe what I was watching. I paid, left, and spent the rest of the week trying to forget that I ever saw that interview. But, by the time I had returned from camping the following weekend, the story was running on all of the 24 hour cable news channels. And when I went in to work on Monday, people were now wearing “Please Don’t Feed the Homeless” trucker hats and t-shirts.
Go here for the rest of this very interesting blog article in the San Diego Reader
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The shame of it all will and should die slowly.
Nice to hear “the other side” in all of this recent history. Here’s a guy who worked in that surf shop that got the first PR on the hateful sticker. Good going Jorge, thanks for your insights.
i read the entire blog article (from your link) and appreciate Jorges personal reflections on the issue. it reflected how hatred and fear are still used to intimidate those with different opinions or lifestyles.
i was at the protest that day and was reduced to tears by anothers below-the-belt, angry shouts of ‘worthless’ directed at me personally. we were taking a stand against a message of intolerance and hate toward another human being based on appearance and supposed financial status and were made to be those in the wrong.
i will forever remember my fellow protestors who stood there with me that day in solidarity for what we believed in. we were there speaking truth about the discrimination, hatred, and intolerance of others we saw. actions that, shamefully, have been alive and active in this country for hundreds of years. think of all the countless groups that have endured this very same discrimination over the years. and i thought this country, at least this community, was over such petty thinking and behavior.
peace will endure when those who need to be ‘right’ will simply choose to be happy.
Furious George –
I empathize with your plight. My stomach turned when I saw good friends on the “wrong” side of the sticker protest. I ran home.