Baggin' On My Fellow Human Beings

Salt Lake City is trying to pass an ordinance restricting panhandling in the city. I chose this as my topic for the opinion article because I have some experience with it and I saw a broadcast about it on CNN last week. Being altruistic by nature, I used to want to save everyone I saw out on the streets in dire circumstances. While I lived in Sacramento I invited a homeless woman to live with me, and she did for a week. Plus, there was a transient man I used to see by the train tracks that I made lunch for regularly. I believe in that kind of sacrifice and charity toward all God’s creatures, especially our fellow human beings.
So when I heard about this new law it surprised me that I wanted it passed. I wanted to no longer be bothered by my ‘fellow human beings’. After all, the woman I invited to live with me ended up taking off with my car and the man I made lunch for eventually followed me, making sexual advances, while he was high on something one day. I became disenchanted with the great unwashed of our society at that point. So, out of guilt and curiosity I looked up editorials on the topic.
I chose a Salt Lake Tribune article on the subject. The author came off at the beginning as if he had a snap judgment about panhandlers that I agreed with. Then he turned the tide of the article halfway through, ending with me not agreeing with him. He used Logos, which always speaks to my intellect, and a lot of Pathos without sounding manipulative. He made his point with the grain of the new ordinance and still admitted he was against it at the end without loosing integrity.