Editor,

A few nights ago, as I was driving to Safeway, my daughter pointed out that she thought “those signs” were mean.

Clueless, I asked what she meant, and she pointed out the signs that were placed near where homeless people gather with their cardboard signs and empty cups for anyone willing to give some spare change.

I saw a sign that told me to keep my change and to not support panhandling. My visceral reaction was that I hoped someone took a hacksaw and removed the signs.

After thinking about it for a few days, my reaction is still the same. Those signs are an insult not only to homeless people or people simply down on their luck, but also insult to my intelligence.

If someone wants to spend their time sitting on a corner with a sign, then so be it. If others do not like that, then don’t give them your spare change.

Regardless of how you feel, I do not need to be told what to do with my spare change or my compassion as a human being. And more so than that, I do not like that the City of Oak Harbor would try and shame people who do not fit their idea of a clean image.

So I say, give these people your spare change; how they spend it does not take away from the kindness of your charitable act.

Jimmy Sloan

Oak Harbor