A punch to the sternum gets your point across, or so I believed when the panhandler whipped around as I wished him well. He acted deaf, and I thought it a keen trick to double-check after donating my front pocket.

It wasn’t my move to hand him the change, but after three years, I can still empathize, if nothing else, because Athens-Clarke County maintains the fifth highest poverty rate out of counties with populations of more than 100,000, and a living wage remains elusive. Yet, I mind the tenuous line between asking out of empathy and preying on it.

But technique among panhandlers, this was my interest if only because I held no job at the time and made an unworthy comparison. Disability is only one example in the generalized arsenal of the panhandler – whether by trauma, heredity, or the shameful streaks of bad luck that a select few are accustomed to. Playing deaf, using dark shades, waving and pointing – all fair game.

Some stick to a sense of community. Take double-teams: one person begging for money while a second stands by. You pass by them, refusing, and the second man interrupts with, “Come on, man. Give the guy some change.” Peer pressure. You pass the change and end the transaction.

On Washington Street, I saw two men nail three kids in a row before shuffling their craft to another bench. They couldn’t hang for long until the police stepped in, which would have been almost laughable if they could afford the panhandling fines.

Others stick to the basics: work solo, accost, loiter, and joke. One clever man shoved a few coins into a fedora hat and shook it in even pulses, keeping his scrappy dog on the hat for attention.

Now, this man operated in a flooded market against dedicated competition and where the single cost to entry is wearing pants. Is he clever for more than the benefits? Is this professional work? Is he.innovating?

Many harbor a genuine need, so private and public sources step in: Job TREC, AIDS Athens and “Shelter + Care,” Athens Area Homeless Shelter, the work of Ms. Lillie Porter (“Mama Lilly”), Leadership UGA, PPA, and donation meters lining College Avenue, among others.

I wonder, though: as techniques evolve and as some adjust to this “career,” adapting to local free services and such, how do the students and officials move to help those in actual need and hinder those who aren’t? Would you want to move out of your job after so much investment?

Panhandling, and how it is performed, commands attention among us. Not unlike a punch.

- Colter McWhorter is a senior from Cumming majoring in pre-medicine and international affairs.