OPINION: It’s Always Important to Give

 Everyone has had a time where they have seen a homeless person and they don’t have spare change, or they don’t have enough money to be able to give it away. Around 1.56 million people around the world are homeless and most people want to help, they just don’t know how to help.

  Ellie Goulding, who works with charity events, states, “If you see someone on the street, even if you don’t have any cash on you, I genuinely think the interaction is more important than anything,”

  “People on the street end up having a lack of social skills and not having friends or a connection with people. So if you don’t have the money, just have a conversation.”

  Another controversial topic is whether or not you should give money directly to homeless people. Many argue that they will use that money to purchase drugs or alcohol. However, this isn’t true. Many people who end up on the streets have had a family; maybe they ended up losing their job, for various reasons, and eventually their families left them. Everyone has a different story so it would simply be unfair to assume that all of them were and are addicted to drugs, and that you shouldn’t give anyone of them spare change.  

  These people are on the sides of the streets. Frozen to their bones, starving, not being able to remember the last time they ate, wrapping themselves in an old torn blanket, just sitting there and staring at everyone who walked in front of them. People walk by questioning if they should buy them a hot meal or buy them a new warm blanket, but ninety percent of people do nothing, they simply just keep walking.

  The difference is that we have a warm house to go to at night when it gets bitter cold outside. In fact, we can’t even go outside without complaining about how cold it is. We take a lot of things for granted. We shouldn’t necessarily feel bad for having these advantages but, we do have to be thankful for what we have and we have to try to give someone who is less fortunate than us the same opportunity.

 This winter, everyone should make an effort to help those in need. You can simply talk to them or you can give the, a couple dollars so they can buy basic essentials.