This week, the Downtown Seattle Association will launch their Have a Heart, Give Smart campaign to discourage panhandling in Seattle and support giving to human services as an alternative. They say that most panhandlers are professional scammers, addicts, or both, and that giving just encourages them.

There is, of course, another side to that story, and I wrote an editorial to that effect a few weeks ago. Several people responded. One doubted that anyone would actually offset their nonsupport of panhandlers with increased giving to human services. His skepticism is widely shared and supported by past experience.

Another, an elderly community volunteer, wrote in support of emulating Albert Schweitzer and giving away as much money as one can afford. Suffering demands alleviation, he said, and who are we to judge? We like this. In a world of such saints, war, poverty, and homelessness would be inexplicable.

And, a college professor emailed that panhandlers make us uncomfortable because they are “not as well bought off as the rest of us by the shining lights and well-modulated clichés of late capitalism.” Yes again, but I suspect many of them would like to be.

In the end, most panhandlers are neither remorseless social parasites nor revolutionary dropouts from capitalism. They are all people, deserving of compassion, and they each challenge us in their own way to build a world where no one needs to beg.