Recently on the street in Coeur d’Alene I was approached by a 30-something man with a backpack and a full, unkempt beard who asked me for some money. I politely said no, but he persisted and said he really needed help. I said I was sorry, and that it was too bad an able-bodied man had to panhandle. He then got in my face and said I wouldn’t talk that way if the shoe was on the other foot. I said back to him that the shoe would never be on the other foot. “Oh yeah, why’s that?” he asked. “Because,” I said, “I’m not afraid of work.”

His face reddened — what I could see of it — and he growled, turned and walked away.

JIM JACKSON

Coeur d’Alene