Tito Ortiz refused to give a "lazy" homeless man money last night. Was this the right decision? What would you have done?

You know, I agree with what he said though, "I work for my sh*t..." he said he used to wash cars as a kid, he came from the streets, blah blah blah... I get it. See, I have a pretty debilitating medical illness, and yet, I work my tail off on websites, magazine submissions, my forum and my two companies I know own. I get up when I feel like crap and I work.

I have lain in bed typing sideways to answer emails that were required of me, because I couldn't sit up. When I'm willing to work that hard, I don't take sob stories from people begging for money. I donate.

I freely donate to charitable organizations that I know help people with a hand up, not a hand out. I do not give money to people on the streets, though. Why?

Because I was burned one too many times, and maybe I'm jaded. I once didn't give money to a guy who said he was hungry. My son was mortified (he was about 7 at the time) and he thought I was just horrible for not giving him money.

I said, "You know what? I'll give him food. " the guy was standing outside a grocery store.

I bought some bread, some bologna, some cheese slices, and some chips. I threw in two cans with the pull tops of ravioli, and I broke my 12-pack of soda open and put two cans in it. When we left, I gave the bag to the guy.

We stopped at a 7-11 on the parking lot of the grocery store, and while I was pumping gas into the car, I watched that man put the bag I had given him, unopened, on the platform of the coin operated phone, without even looking inside. He would have found 5 dollars in there if he had looked, but I had apologized to him when I handed it to him and told him I had no money but here was some food. My son learned a lesson that day, a sad one, I think, when he saw the man put the bag on the phone and said, "That's just mean, mom."

The man got into a nicer car than the one I drove at the time, with a friend of his, and drove away. I went to the phone and got the bag and the money back. At the time I gave this money and food to this man, I needed the money myself.

I was just starting to show sings of my illness, having some mild preliminary flares, and I was a single mom, barely scraping by with medical expenses and two kids to raise on my own. It was tough. That money I spent on food for him was money I needed, but I wanted to do right, and I had more than it appeared he had.

Now that I'm not struggling for every penny, now that I am so truly blessed to do the work I do and love, to write and make good money at it, and pay my bills, and now that I have a family who also helps with the bills and such and we are doing great, I donate to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and I buy food and donate money to the food banks instead of giving directly. One last note: on Mahalo the other day, there was a guy BRAGGING about how he could go out and panhandle for a few hours and make several hundred dollars. He was laughing and doing YouTube videos about it.

I also knew a woman whose boss, the owner of a very large company, would dress in torn up and worn clothes and wouldn't shave for a few days and on a weekend would go out and panhandle in Dallas on the street corners. He said he could make upwards of $1800 per day on a Sunday hitting them before and after church when people felt the guiltiest (his words, not mine). No, I don't give money to panhandlers, and I don't for one minute fault him for not giving money or saying what he said.

I do, however, hope he donates to charities. Lastly, for those who give with a pure and generous spirit and heart to someone less then ethical in their dealings (Like fake panhandlers), the universe gives credit for the spirit in which the generosity is given and not the actions of the recipient. You are blessed by the giving.

I have a tough line on this one, earn the money. This is not to say I never hand out money, indeed I frequently do, but the people who get a donation from me are the street musicians, magicians, story tellers, & tarot readers. I know all too well stories of homeless who will beg for money all day then spend the money on drugs and booze.

I feel like if I support someone who is just begging I am not helping, sometimes I give into the impulse but I never feel good about it. If I help someone who is making an effort to work for the money I am helping someone financially as well as supporting him or her while a skill is learned or developed. I feel like people in the first category are often the types who will live off of other people as long as they can, the people who make even a modest effort to work for it are the types who will pull themselves out of the streets and into jobs when they can.

The other thing I would rather do is donate to a foodshelf or a shelter that way I know beyond a shadow of a doubt the money is not going to drugs or booze.

Being from California, I encounter someone who is “down on their luck” daily, if I choose to go out. So many, in fact, that one starts becoming numb, and no longer feels sorry for them. However, mental illness, the economy or a rotten divorce could have just as easily caused their situation as the alcoholism, drug abuse or general laziness that I normally assume.To answer the original question: if I had a few nickels or quarters, I would consider parting with them, depending on the situation and how much of the sob story I believed.

Paper money? No way. Not here.

It’s sad, but true. Just as on the Internet, there are SO many scams around here, just waiting to take your hard-earned cash. You literally have to become super unconcerned and hard-edged around here to avoid getting blatantly ripped off, or worse.

For this reason, I am moving to Oregon as SOON as I can. Big city life is not my forte, thank you. :).

I realize many people feel being homeless is a choice, and in some rare cases it is, but in most cases it is not. The homeless are typically either mentally ill or hardcore alcoholics and drug addicts left to the streets, left behind because of an inability to help themselves. Perhaps it is lack of money to get the necessary treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.

Perhaps it is mental illness. Perhaps it is just someone down on their luck. To say a homeless person is lazy or that they are in that situation by choice is as bad as saying a black person is a criminal just because they are black.It's stereotyping, a natural human response of trying to lump everyone into as few categories as possible in the hopes of being able to make some sense out of this chaotic world we live in.

But, just because it's human nature to do so doesn't mean we have to engage in that behavior, but instead take the high road and praise the Almighty above that we aren't in such a situation. The truth is, everyone's story is different, every case is different."Judge not lest ye be judged yourself. " Judgmentalism is a problem I, myself, have struggled with and still struggle with.

Many times, I have to catch myself and realize that we are all doing the best we can with what we have been given in this world. Sadly, what I have found in my own struggle with judgmentalism is that I will judge someone, move on, and then later on catch myself doing something similar to the person I judged. It's a very difficult thing to look into the mirror of truth and see just what kind of heathens we are inside; however, sometimes it's necessary to move on and evolve.

You never know what's right around the corner in this life.Be careful passing judgment on others because life has a funny way of serving the same dish to those who judge.

I totally understand Tito Ortiz response to the homeless man. It would open up the door to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wanted something for nothing. There are many scam artist out there.

However, the question was not about my understanding. Would I have given the guy money? Well frankly, yes I would.

I would carry money around with me for just that purpose. Having gone hungry before, I know how much a five dollar bill can change some one's day. Would I get duped, yup; however, if I had enough money that a fin wouldn't matter.

I would go for it.

Sharing with the unfortunate is like a personal fortune. Maybe we all don't have money to share all the time but it is a great blessing to share. I do it .

I even get upset a little . It still should be done. On an off and on basis is a good way.

Totally all the time is wrong. I need to go pan handle sometimes and hey a liitle change to a dollar is very thankful to the needy. This is a good question.

With some extra money leaving one's pockets can help a city. Can help balance. Just 1 or 2 dollars two or three days a week is good.

Please help your city that way . Yhere should be a charity box for it not just a box for Ronald Mcdonald. HELP YOUR CITY PLEASE!

I think it is morally wrong to give money to beggars. I believe that it encourages them to remain in a bad situation rather than actually help them. I agree with Ortiz's comments such as "ever hear of a job" and "I worked for my sh**".

You should not ask others to give you something for nothing. The guy in that video could speak well enough to communicate and was mobile. That means there has to be SOMETHING that he could do to earn the money instead of begging for it.

If he was performing, offering to carry a heavy item, offering to wash a car, doing yard work, collecting recyclables or anything useful he could earn money. Every day there are ads on Craigslist offering meager wages to laborers on an informal cash basis. If Ortiz had pulled out his wallet and handed that guy money and the video became popular, he would be flooded with requests for handouts.

I think if someone wants to help the homeless, the best thing that they can do is volunteer in a shelter or give to charities that support rehabilitation and education programs. Handing someone your "spare" change just rewards them for their behavior and encourages them to beg more rather than improve themselves. I knew a girl in college that would dress up in ragged dirty clothing, use some eye shadow to dirty up her face and then stand at a freeway off ramp during the evening rush hour with a cardboard sign saying "Hungry" and asking for change.

She often made $200-$300 for a few hours of "work". She lived in a dorm room, ate in the school cafeteria and dressed normally the rest of the time. This was just how she made her party money, and she thought it quite the funny scam.

This sort of scam wouldn't be possible if people supported shelters rather than gave cash to any stranger that simply asks for it. youtube.com/watch?v=_HYCea-EAyU.

If I had the money to give, I would have given him some money. I am glad you put the term "lazy" in quotes. I have seen many people that were homeless that were not lazy.

There are any number of reasons people are in that situation. Alcohol and drug addiction, death of a family member that was the means of support, mental illness, fire, so on and so forth. Often, in order for these street people to eat they have to beg for handouts.

We like to think of them as "lazy" or being homeless by choice to avoid the reality that we may be in that situation some day. The term lazy implies an easy carefree life. That is one thing a homeless person, don't have!

Anyway, I would have given the guy some money if I could afford it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.