Panhandlers

The Evanston, Ill., effort to wipe out panhandlers by “warning” or “advising” donors (“City Uses ‘Interveners’ to Thwart Panhandlers,” Nov. 24) reminds me of an incident a year ago when I--as usual--handed a dollar bill to a panhandler on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. As we walked away, I told my companion, “Well, I may have been taken, but if he decides to buy drugs or booze with it, so be it.” Twenty minutes later, coming back to my car, I spotted the bearded young man sitting on the curb, gnawing a huge turkey drumstick outside a cafeteria with a sign in its window: “Drumsticks, 95 special.”

I would rather be taken 30 times than miss giving my dollar to a hungry man.

MIMI MERRILL

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