So you want to know why Republicans, conservatives and rich people have a disdain for us common people? I was walking home from the store and I was thinking about how I was going to manage the money I had left in my account with the spending I needed to do for the next few weeks. All of my money is spoken for. If you didn't catch what I said at the beginning, I was walking home because I don't have a car. I have all this math going on in my head, trying to figure out what gymnastics I can do on the money end.

As I get to my apartment complex, the light catches the shine from a pale gold Cadillac slowly driving through the complex. It has the wire rims, it's all detailed out and it's looks very prime. It hits the speed bump with the ease of a driver who doesn't want to get the undercarriage scratched. As the car gets closer to me it slows down. I figure that I'm taking up a lot of room in the drive area. Seriously, I don't think I'm that fat but I moved over to the right side to hit the curb so the car can go by. It slows down a bit more and the driver shouts out, “hey man.”

When I look in the car I see a guy with a sweat dripping T-shirt, a sweat stained baseball cap and a couple of missing teeth. While it was before 9am, the sun was already doing a number on anyone who would dare venture outside. I was feeling the heat but I was walking. The man looks at me and asks me if I can spare a dollar because is electric meter only has $0.15 left in it and he needs money to pay for some.

This is the part where conservatives would have a heart attack. Just to clarify, when I say conservatives I'm, including my parents in that, though I doubt conservatives would accept them into their fold. Here was a guy, sitting in a gold Cadillac with spoked rims, a stereo system and air conditioning, asking me, a guy with no car, with less than $20 in his bank account, for a dollar so he can put money in his account so his electricity doesn't get turned off. I looked at his missing toothed grin, suppressing what I wanted to say to the guy, which was to sell his gas guzzling , ostentatious ghetto car and pay you own damn bill and stop bothering a hard working American who is walking home because he can't afford a car. I thought this but didn't want to get shot so I truthfully told him I had no cash on hand. He looked at me like I was Mitt Romney with a stash of cash at my disposal and I was refusing to give him any money because I was a stingy American. He waited just long enough to make the situation uncomfortable, like if he said nothing I would relent and give him whatever change I had in my pocket, which was none.

After the awkward pause he blessed me and he drove off.

First of all, why would he bless me? I didn't give him any money and I am the one walking home with meager groceries in my hand. He is the one driving his gold Cadillac with spoked rims begging people walking along the street for money. I'm the one with no money in my bank account and thinking, before he rolled up along side of me, what could I sell to make ends meet. If anything he should sell the rims and give me part of the money, since apparently he can afford the payments on the car. When I got home I got pissed at myself because the apartment was thankfully cool, but that meant I forgot to turn off the air conditioner when I left for work. I'm sure my cat appreciated the comfortable conditions but she doesn't pay the rent, so she's nothing but a freeloader.

It's that train of thought that can get conservatives, Republicans and rich people on their high horses. They would lump a whole lot of people, including myself, in the same boat as the guy driving the Cadillac asking strangers for money. They tend to see clips from people's lives and they lump a lot of people in the same melting pot when we are more like a stew, with each person having their own unique circumstance. Just because you see a woman standing in line with food stamps and three kids doesn't mean she's lazy. I can give a snap judgment on the guy in the Cadillac, but that could easily have been a car he borrowed or it was his only transportation to work. We are quick to place judgment on someone without trying to think about what might be the circumstances of their actions. Someone might say I should sell my cameras or comic collection if I want to raise money. As far as the cameras I'm trying to start a business and need the cameras to get jobs. Selling the comics, well then you don't know me as much as my friends know me. Ask them what would happen to me if I did that.

Snap judgments don't help anyone. We shouldn't do it.