Panhandling in Virginia Beach

You see them at major intersections and at exits off of I-264. You never see them outside of local establishments. I do not know what the laws are on panhandling in Virginia Beach are but it is ironic that individuals are asking for food, money, work and shelter in areas where it is dangerous to stop, reach into your wallet, and hand over some money because some jerk wants to get off of an exit at 50 miles and hour and run you over. Some would consider them to be a nuisance, as Virginia Beach is attempting to transform itself from a suburban wilderness into a world class city full of high-rise condominiums that cost between $300,000 to $700,000 or more.

Whose Virginia Beach is this anyway? An article entitled "Revenge of The White Man", in the LA Times talks about how White Men are leaving the Democratic Party and taking up with the Republican Party because of the economic issues that have many resorting to panhandling as many are now homeless, or will be shortly. A Black President cannot find a working lower class White Man a job, and his White Vice President dropped the f-bomb. African-American Men are supposed to be among the hardest hit by this recession. Black people came out to vote for a Black President in unprecedented numbers, and most will vote for Barack Obama again but when we get back to the way that things are in this country and there is no African-American running for office we will stay at home like we always have in the past. Some White liberals may vote for Barack Obama, and they will vote for whoever is running for office in 2016, but those that are hardest hit by this recession will be no where to be found.

In fact, the irony of having a Black President is that if we do return to the prosperity that we had under Bill Clinton, who some consider to be a Black President (at least in spirit anyway), you will not see us at the polls again. People say that African-Americans are in charge of a sinking ship, but that is the only time that I see African-Americans react with any sense of urgency anyway. Seeing that we like the stress that drama brings I would think that we would be the best candidate to "clean up this town", and I am sure that a lot of you felt the same way. Would it be racist to assume as much, well yes, but you can't say that you did not feel as though you were not "sticking it to the man" by voting for him. Blacks and Whites worked together and were able to achieve the results that they were looking to realize.

But when will we work together again? America wants to be a country where everyone has a college degree in order to get a job that can get you into the lower middle class. Well ten years ago you could still get into the upper middle class with nothing but a high school diploma, the resolve to get ahead, and the street smarts to work the system. Well now that same system works to the advantage of individuals who are entering into this country through illegal means. Aliens are getting more privileges than you did, and you were born and raised here, something is not right.

Virginia Beach is going to leave a lot of good, honest, hard working, tax paying middle class people behind. The city will court business owners and "movers and shakers". You will not recognize this city in 20 years as there will be high rises where there used to be trees and light rail where automobiles used to pass. The city would probably like to have a downtown area as big as Harrisonburg. They even want a professional sports team, and I doubt that the average person who already lives here would be able to afford to sit in the nose bleed section and enjoy the game with a pair of binoculars. But this is not about Virginia Beach, it is about every city in America that wants to compete on that large scale. People say that Virginia Beach is not New York City, but it has the same mentality among the leadership; get them out of the way by any means necessary, price them out so we can get a better class of people into this city. That is what they have always done in New York and what they will continue to do. They city had trouble doing it during those dark ages of the seventies and eighties but found its way in the nineties and is now back at it again. If one could bring a thirtieth of the infrastructure of New York City to these backwoods it would have been considered a major accomplishment. If one can do it without public investment they might even get re-elected.

I do not expect to see the panhandlers disappear, nor do I want to because I know how it is. God has kept me in a place where someone was there to help me out in my time of need, and I understand how easily you can be in such a situation. I was always blessed to have enough money in my bank account to go to where I needed to go or an automobile to take me out of the city if things did not work out. If I can get my mind together I could probably just get a promotion at the job that I have and work my way up. Can you work your way up, or are you fighting for your very survival? Do you find yourself out in the rain, or are you getting by with whatever parachute has been handed to you? In a city where everyone is expected to do for themselves what do you do when you are unable to get ahead? Perhaps being able to ask for something is better than being unable to go without ...