{"id":105,"date":"2017-09-04T01:39:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/?p=105"},"modified":"2017-09-04T01:47:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:47:50","slug":"im-just-going-to-the-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/04\/im-just-going-to-the-store\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m just going to the store…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
I find this photo ironic, because sometimes police are the worst panhandlers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…don’t accost me on my way in and out begging for money.\u00a0 (Sometimes you do get hit up in both directions, too.)\u00a0 And really, that’s what is going on, begging for money.\u00a0 Same goes for at the register, btw.\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if a product is being sold or a good cause is being promoted.\u00a0 It’s still confronting people to pressure them into buying a product they didn’t come out for.\u00a0 Sort of an emotional public intimidation.\u00a0 But what it really is is begging.<\/p>\n

I’m just going to the store, leave me alone.<\/p>\n

I’m not talking traditional panhandling.\u00a0 You know, the people at the side of the road with cardboard signs.\u00a0 That’s bad enough.\u00a0 But that’s easy to take care of… just swing your car as if you’re going to run them over and watch them scurry for safety.\u00a0 LOL!!!\u00a0 Oh, fun times.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude1b\u00a0 But I digress.<\/p>\n

Warning, mini-rant:\u00a0 I especially hate it when panhandlers use their kids.\u00a0 That makes me angry.\u00a0 \/mini-rant off<\/p>\n

\"\"Anyway, Little League, school clubs, Scouts, various charities and so on, all selling their various goodies and wares by placing themselves at an unavoidable place of a store entrance.\u00a0 It doesn’t really matter what the cause it, I didn’t leave home to seek you out, you placed yourself in my path seeking money.\u00a0 That’s a form of begging.<\/p>\n

The worst, IMO, is the fire fighter “boot drives”, where fire fighters (and sometimes police) station themselves at busy intersections and walk up and down the stopped vehicles holding their boots out for people to toss money in.\u00a0 Let’s be real, that’s intimidating to the average person, and they know it.\u00a0 It’s a form of bullying, an emotional strong-arm tactic, regardless the intent or who is doing it.\u00a0 Bottom line:\u00a0 it’s no less panhandling than what traditional panhandlers do.\u00a0 No way around it.<\/p>\n

I don’t appreciate being put in the position of being the “bad guy” who didn’t donate to the cause, or didn’t buy the requisite amount of cookies, or whatever, in full view of everyone and being labeled “that guy” when I may have a perfectly good reason to not participate.\u00a0 Maybe I give elsewhere.\u00a0 Maybe I have other causes near and dear to my heart, and limited resources, so I have to pick and choose accordingly.\u00a0 Public coercion doesn’t allow for that, though.\u00a0 You still get unfairly labeled.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe I should embrace being “that guy”.\u00a0 I am a curmudgeon, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…don’t accost me on my way in and out begging for money.\u00a0 (Sometimes you do get hit up in both directions, too.)\u00a0 And really, that’s what is going on, begging for money.\u00a0 Same goes for at the register, btw.\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if a product is being sold or a good cause is being promoted.\u00a0 It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annoyances","category-daily-life","category-pet-peeve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}