Panhandler gives kids a lesson on poverty

Tough question. Unless you follow a panhandler at night, after a day on the median strip, there's no way to know. There are a lot of people, especially men, who don't get any welfare money, and really don't have any permanent place to live. There are still a lot of poor people in this country -- about 13 percent of the population -- and you never see most of them. They don't stand in traffic with cardboard signs. A lot of them have full-time jobs, and they're still poor.

"I never see you give panhandlers money, Dad," my son said. Used to. Still do on the sidewalk, from time to time, but only if the panhandler is a senior citizen.

"How do you know they're not just faking it?" Mike asked.

You don't. Sad but true: Some people pretend they have no money to get money. But it's hard to believe that someone who spends a long day in the heat and humidity and humility of panhandling is going home to a nice house every night, wouldn't you say? That's an awful way to make some money, but it might be all he knows.

By now, we were on the Beltway, headed home. There was a long, nice, important silence in the back seat.